Nuclear Lighthouses
We think of our world as a connected one. No where is too far, and with the internet we are never really alone. There was a time though, and not too far into our past where the world was far less interconnected, and it was still very possible to feel like the last person on the planet. Welcome to the world of Soviet lighthouses in the North Pole.
In Northern most Russia there lies a stretch of coastline that reaches far into the arctic circle. In this part of the world, they experience darkness that lasts for months. Navigating these treacherous arctic waters in the dead of a long, dark winter was tough before satellite navigation so the Soviets built a series of lighthouses on impossibly rocky outcrops to guide the ships.
Fortunately, these isolated lighthouses were autonomous, but provided the lonely seamen with just a little company on their long, lonely and isolated journeys. In order for these lighthouses to operate without human interaction they ran on small atomic reactors, specifically made by the Soviets for performing tasks such as this.
With the collapse of the Soviet union, these lighthouses continued their autonomous operations for a few more years, before they too gave up the ghost. In the following years they were raided for their precious metals, despite the radioactive dangers.
These lighthouses how exist as guardians of a bygone era, frozen in time, of a completely different world.
via: [EnglishRussia]
