Overview

Nanda Devi, meaning the goddess of happiness, is the patron mountain of the Indian Himalayas. During the cold war in 1965, the CIA collaborated with the Indian Intelligence Bureau to site a nuclear-powered surveillance device on the mountain to intercept Chinese nuclear missile data. The mountain goddess, a temperamental revolutionary, whipped up an immense tempest, and the expedition turned around. The plutonium powered device was stashed on the mountain with the intention of recovering it the following season, however it has yet to be found, and "could still be ticking somewhere". Since 1965, the plutonium-powered generator has potentially been leaking radioactivity into the mountain. Mysterious cases of cancer abound in the surrounding villages, and the mountain has since been closed to subsequent expeditions.