{"id":12603,"date":"2025-12-15T14:37:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:37:58","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-12-15T14:37:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:37:58","slug":"a-lost-cia-nuclear-device-in-the-himalayas-poses-an-ongoing-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harici.com.tr\/en\/a-lost-cia-nuclear-device-in-the-himalayas-poses-an-ongoing-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"A lost CIA nuclear device in the Himalayas poses an ongoing threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to\u00a0<em>The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0(NYT), the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2025\/12\/13\/world\/asia\/cia-nuclear-device-himalayas-nanda-devi.html?rsrc=flt&amp;unlocked_article_code=1.8U8.aaxE.5UdUqoLrkEpJ&amp;smid=url-share\">lost<\/a><\/span> a radioisotope generator containing plutonium during a secret operation on Nanda Devi mountain in India in 1965.<\/p>\n<p>American and Indian climbers aimed to install monitoring equipment on Nanda Devi, the country&#8217;s second-highest peak at 7,816 meters, to track China&#8217;s nuclear tests.<\/p>\n<p>The team set out to carry a 22-kilogram portable nuclear device called SNAP-19, which contained plutonium, to the summit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Operation halted by a storm<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>During the operation, a sudden snowstorm made the climb impossible.<\/p>\n<p>On the orders of task force leader Captain M.S. Kohli, the team stashed the device in a camp on the slope and was evacuated from the area.<\/p>\n<p>According to the newspaper, the generator has not been recovered since that time. The loss of the device, which contained Plutonium-239 and Plutonium-238 isotopes used in nuclear munitions and as power sources for spacecraft, was never officially acknowledged by the Washington administration.<\/p>\n<p>The operation was launched after the Beijing government conducted its first atomic bomb test at its proving ground in Xinjiang in 1964.<\/p>\n<p>The newspaper reported that at the time, neither the US nor India had sufficient intelligence data to monitor China&#8217;s nuclear program, which is why the risky climb was planned.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The veil of secrecy was lifted in 1978<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The mission, known as the &#8220;Nanda Devi deception,&#8221; was kept secret for more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p>The incident was brought to public attention by reporter Howard Kohn in a story published on April 12, 1978, in\u00a0<em>Outside<\/em>\u00a0magazine, then a supplement to\u00a0<em>Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>After the story gained traction, Democratic Congressmen John Dingell and Richard Ottinger appealed to then-US President Jimmy Carter.<\/p>\n<p>The representatives requested that Carter take all necessary steps to resolve this serious and unpleasant situation.<\/p>\n<p>Indian environmental experts believe the danger posed by the lost device persists.<\/p>\n<p>Experts are concerned that as glaciers melt, the device could contaminate the sources of the Ganges River and cause radioactive pollution in the region.<\/p>\n<p><!-- notionvc: ef60898f-2b0d-44a3-be07-0531a4d5e2b8 --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to\u00a0The New York Times\u00a0(NYT), the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) lost a radioisotope generator containing plutonium during a secret operation on Nanda Devi mountain in India in 1965. American and Indian climbers aimed to install monitoring equipment on Nanda Devi, the country&#8217;s second-highest peak at 7,816 meters, to track China&#8217;s nuclear tests. The team [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[14846,14327,1946,14850,14854,14853,14849,14855,1092,14845,14851,14844,14848,14852,14847],"class_list":["post-12603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","tag-1965-secret-mission","tag-china-nuclear-program","tag-cia","tag-cold-war-espionage","tag-environmental-hazard","tag-ganges-river","tag-himalayas","tag-howard-kohn","tag-india","tag-lost-nuclear-device","tag-m-s-kohli","tag-nanda-devi","tag-plutonium","tag-radioactive-pollution","tag-snap-19"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A lost CIA nuclear device in the Himalayas poses an ongoing threat - Harici<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In 1965, the CIA lost a plutonium-powered device in the Himalayas. 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