Military

A National Science Foundation grant will allow the University of Alaska Fairbanks to expand its activities at the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Gakona.

The U.S. military built HAARP in the 1990s for $290 million to conduct ionospheric research related to communications, navigation, surveillance and other applications. But in 2015 the Air Force ended the program and turned the HAARP facility over to the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

UAF has since operated it sporadically for government and independent clients.

“We’ve been charging a little over $5,000 an hour to use the facility,” UAF Geophysical Institute Director Bob McCoy said. “But we haven’t had very many hours, so it’s been costing us quite a bit.”

McCoy says five-year, $9.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation will enable the university to maintain the HAARP facility and expand operations.

“Now we can open it up fully and invite in people to use it, so it’s a really big deal for us,’ McCoy said.

McCoy says the HAARP station is the most powerful of three ionospheric research facilities on the planet. It uses hundreds of high frequency radio transmitters and antennas, to probe the ionosphere.

McCoy says it’s a tool that will be increasingly valuable for scientific experiments involving the aurora as the solar cycle peaks.

“The next four or five years, the ionosphere should get a lot more exciting,” McCoy said. “You should see, in the winter, a lot more dynamic aurora.”

HAARP is also useful as a remote sensing tool, an application McCoy says is in demand as the Arctic warms and countries vie for control of it.

“We can actually look north several hundred miles from Alaska, and we can study the ocean,” McCoy said. “We can measure sea ice, and we can look for aircraft or ships out in the Arctic Ocean. HAARP can transmit, say, to the north, reflect off the ionosphere down to the sea ice, and you pick up that signal again either with an antenna or a satellite.”

McCoy says a separate grant will provide a million dollars to build and locate a LIDAR instrument at the HAARP site, for study of other parts of the upper atmosphere. That, together with other instrumentation UAF plans to relocate to the HAARP site, will make up what’s being called the Subauroral Geophysical Observatory for Space Physics and Radio Science.

Correction: The original version of this story put the dollar amount of the NSF grant at $3 million. The correct amount is $9.3 million.

The Tanana Chiefs Conference has administered more than 14,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine since the pandemic began to protect Native and non-Native Alaskans around the Interior from the disease. And on Monday, the Fairbanks-based organization donated 800 surplus doses to Eielson Air Force Base to help protect servicemembers and their families and the civilian employees who work there.

Tanana Chiefs has been inoculating people in Fairbanks and more than two dozen outlying communities since late December. When the organization got an extra allotment of the Moderna vaccine this month from the federal Indian Health Service, TCC Chief and Chairman P.J. Simon said he and other leaders wondered how they could best use the surplus.

“And we thought, ‘Well, let’s offer it to the U.S. military,’ ” he said. “They provide us protection and gives us our freedom. And, y’know, freedom isn’t free.”

Eielson spokesperson Staff Sgt. Kaylee DuBois says base officials were thankful for the offer.

“We appreciate the doses we got from the Tanana Chiefs Conference,” she said, “and we’re looking forward to providing these vaccines to volunteers in our base community as soon as possible.”

DuBois says while Eielson continues vaccinating as many of its personnel as possible, its servicemembers and their families and civilian workers have all been maintaining precautions like wearing facemasks and keeping social distance to reduce spread of the disease on and off- base.

“In the fight against covid, we’re all in this together,” she said.

Simon says the Tanana Chiefs also believes that a unified effort is essential to halt the spread of covid in and around Fairbanks.

“We’re just happy to be part of the community and to help contribute,” he said. “Y’know, the tribes want to contribute to everybody pulling out of this pandemic.”

That’s why Tanana Chiefs began offering vaccinations to Fairbanks North Star Borough School District workers in late February. And earlier this month, the organization began offering the vaccine to anyone age  16 or older who lives in the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

“We opened it up to everybody,” he said. “We’ve been giving it out for a while, the free vaccinations.”

Simon says Tanana Chiefs also has been vaccinating as many people as possible in the 26 communities within its service area. In Tok, 200 miles south of Fairbanks, many got their shots at TCC’s Upper Tanana Health Center, a $20 million facility that opened in November. The clinic provides care for both Natives and non-Natives, as does the TCC facility in Nenana.

Simon says the Nenana clinic has been so busy that Tanana Chiefs are considering expanding it. And he says the organization also is building clinics in the villages of Northway and Rampart.

Editor’s note: Any resident of the Fairbanks North Star Borough interested in getting a free covid vaccination from Tanana Chiefs must contact the organization by close of business Friday. To find out more and to schedule an appointment, go to the covid vaccine page of the TCC website or call the organization at (907) 452-8251.

A Bethel woman made history recently by becoming the first infantrywoman in the Alaska National Guard. When Serita Unin, who is Cup’ik, joined the National Guard in 2009, combat arms jobs weren’t open to women.

Unin was a generator mechanic for close to 10 years before she decided to go into the infantry. Her advice to other women who may want a combat job is to do lots of physical training.

“Just image a female carrying the male battle buddy out with their full gear on. It’s super heavy, so physical training is a big deal. So if you are female looking to go, do it, train for it, and the sky’s not the limit,” said Unin.

Unin is now a fireteam leader with Bison Company, 1st Battalion, 297th Infantry Regiment in the Alaska Army National Guard.

She has no regrets, and hopes other women will follow her lead.

Last year, the United States’ largest icebreaker needed repairs after an engine fire. This summer, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy will take a trip through the Northwest Passage, in conjunction with Canada.

Experts said the Coast Guard cutter Healy’s trip through the Northwest Passage signifies a willingness to cooperate between Canada and the U.S. The announcement came from Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz during his State of the Coast Guard Address on March 11.

Professor Troy Bouffard studies Arctic security at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He said the two countries disagree about the status of the Northwest Passage. The United States said it’s an international strait that ships should be able to transit without Canada’s consent, but Canada said those are internal waters that fall within its sovereignty and they should be notified of any transit.

“I think it sends a clear message or agreement to disagree. The official status of the Northwest Passage is somewhat less important than being able to collaborate and operate with expectations and confidence with our partners,” Bouffard said.

The countries have a treaty, signed in 1988, basically agreeing that the United States will get Canada’s consent to sail icebreakers through waters Canada claims. That treaty came about after controversy in 1985 when the U.S. icebreaker Polar Sea transited the passage without telling Canada.

The upcoming 2021 trip honors that treaty. But in recent years, the U.S. has considered moves that would have violated that.

In response to a 2019 Russian announcement that the country would restrict traffic in the Northern Sea Route, the U.S. said it likely would conduct an exercise in the Northwest Passage. That exercise could have inflamed tensions with Russia and Canada, but it never happened.

Bouffard said that the Biden administration and Canada jointly planning this summer’s 2021 trip is a strategic move — and that it sends a message to Russia and U.S. adversaries.

“I tend to think that this was also a clear message to, as quick as possible, strengthen the friendship in partnership with Canada in light of recent years of tensions and mixed messages about freedom of navigation and get back to the way things normally were,” Bouffard said.

“The Arctic continues to be a region of growing geostrategic importance, where the maxim ‘presence equals influence’ rings true,” Schultz said in his address to the Coast Guard earlier in March.

Statements like that aren’t lost on Kawerak’s Marine Advocate Austin Ahmasuk. He pays close attention to those international tensions as he studies shipping traffic and activity in the region.

“I think what’s perhaps playing out, is a little bit of rhetoric between countries that are kind of escalating hot political topics, such as, security interests, national defense, that kind of thing. I don’t think that we in the Arctic want to be in the middle of an arms race or political stage playing that puts us in jeopardy. Of course, we have to work internationally, as much as possible to ensure that peace occurs in the Arctic,” Ahmasuk said.

Ahmasuk said the Coast Guard and U.S. military have been destructive toward Alaska Native people many times. As one example, he points to the military’s history of leaving toxic waste in the Arctic.

Even the Healy’s namesake, Capt. Michael Healy was partially responsible for the destruction of the Tlingit village of Angoon in 1882. While U.S. Naval Cmdr. Edgar C. Merriman is often cited as the primary officer who gave the order for the bombardment, historical documents do show that Healy, as captain of the Thomas Corwin, did participate in the bombardment.

But as temperatures rise, Ahmasuk recognizes the undeniable increase in traffic in the Arctic waterways. And he’s hopeful that trips like the Healy’s upcoming Northwest Passage journey could be a chance for communication between federal agencies and Indigenous people.

“I hope that the Coast Guard can learn from our communities, and compare how our communities contrast [and] how our communities might be involved in this new era — this relatively new era that we’re trying to figure out now,” he said.

Bouffard explained that this trip is meant to be primarily for research and learning.

“I hope this does become a pattern for research and for other means and collaborations and learning about the environment and working together because the U.S. Coast Guard and the Canadian Coast Guard have completely different statutory requirements,” he said. “For example, the U.S. Coast Guard has a law enforcement function, especially with regard to international law, whereas Canada doesn’t. There’s a lot to learn from each other in that way.”

And he said there is still much to be studied and surveyed in the Northwest Passage.

According to Coast Guard documents, the trip will be primarily observational. And pending approval from Canadian officials, it will allow for some onboard scientists to do some “passive research”.

The Coast Guard does plan to do some undefined operational exercises in Baffin Bay after embarking from Nuuk, Greenland.

Right now, Nome’s Harbormaster Lucas Stotts doesn’t have any official word on whether the U.S. Cutter Healy will dock in Nome.

But according to the Coast Guard, the voyage plans to begin in mid-August from Dutch Harbor and finish by mid-September in Nuuk. Plans have not yet been decided for the timing or route of the USCG Healy’s return voyage to its homeport in Seattle, Washington.

The Army says it will boost its ability to operate in the Arctic, in part by recruiting soldiers who want to be in Alaska.

The Army’s new plan for the region is called “Regaining Arctic Dominance.” The name implies both a commitment and an admission of neglect.

Gen. Peter Andrysiak said the Army excelled in the far North during the Cold War. Then, he said, its Arctic skills “atrophied” as the focus shifted to warmer climates and the global war on terror.

The new plan outlines a need for Arctic-capable equipment and also focuses on what Andrysiak calls “talent.”

“When you go into a recruiting station, you’re going to be able to sign up there and say, ‘I want to go to Alaska, because I grew up in Colorado. I like to ski and I like to snowboard. I know that’s a key component of being able to operate in and through the Arctic,’” he said, describing a proposal that’s gaining support. “So what we want to do is make that opportunity available.”

Andrysiak also said the Army wants to revive relationships with Alaska Native communities to teach soldiers Indigenous survival skills.

The Army is the latest of at least seven military services or agencies to announce an Arctic plan in the past two years.

Heather Conley, an Arctic expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the multitude of Arctic plans is a sign the U.S. government lacks a unified approach.

“Now that we have so many strategies, now it’s time to make painful budgetary decisions and, you know, really prioritize this,” she said.

In lieu of U.S. commitments, some of the Arctic plans instead highlight what America’s allies bring to the table, Conley said.

“The Navy isn’t going to build new ice-strengthened surface vessels for use in the Arctic. They said very clearly in their strategy: They’ll think about it for the future,” Conley recalled.

The Army plan mentions climate change as a threat to infrastructure. Victoria Herrmann, managing director of the Arctic Institute, said she wishes it had gone farther.

“There wasn’t a forward-looking assessment of the rapid increase of how climate change will become a threat multiplier,” Herrmann said.

Like other recent Arctic plans, the Army document notes a potential increase in ship traffic and acknowledges the region is becoming a place of competition for the U.S., Russia and China.

The Army Corps of Engineers intends to haul radioactive and hazardous materials from Fort Greely’s mothballed nuclear power plant to Fairbanks by truck, where it would be loaded onto railcars and transported to tidewater, then loaded onto barges and taken to nuclear-waste disposal sites in the Lower 48.

The Corps of Engineers official who’s overseeing decommissioning and dismantling of the old power plant said Tuesday that contractors will take most of the solid waste from the project to disposal facilities in-state. But because Alaska doesn’t have a facility that handles radioactive and hazardous materials, those will be packed up and taken out of state.

“Waste that cannot be disposed of in the state of Alaska will be shipped to the Lower 48 states for disposal, via a combination of truck transport, train transport and vessels,” says Project Manager Brenda Barber.

Barber said in a Tuesday presentation on the project that waste will be trucked from the site on Fort Greely where the power plant known as the SM-1A is located, to the Alaska Railroad yard in Fairbanks, where the material will be loaded onto railcars.

“It’ll be transported by train to either the Port of Whittier, or the Port of Alaska, where it’ll be loaded onto vessels,” she said. “From there, it’ll be shipped to the Port of Seattle or (other) West Coast port. Once it arrives, it will go by rail or truck to the disposal facility.”

Barber says plans call for two truckloads of radioactive and hazardous materials to roll out of Fort Greely weekly, beginning late next year or in 2023. She says the Corps plans to minimize traffic congestion the trucks may cause in communities along the route, especially during rush hour.

“We’ll be scheduling all of the decommissioning-related traffic for off-peak hours,” she said.

Barber told the small audience that turned out for the meeting at the Westmark that all radioactive and hazardous materials extracted from the site will be packaged and transported according to federal and state regulations, to maintain safety for the workers and the public.

“Safety is the Number 1 priority for the Corps of Engineers,” she said. “There will be minimal risk to the public throughout the duration of the SM-1 project.”

Corps officials say the most highly radioactive materials and components were removed soon after the SM-1A was shut down in 1972.

Tuesday’s meeting was the first of two the Corps has scheduled to inform members of the public about the project and how they can weigh in on it. The second meeting will be held at 6:30 tonight at the Delta Junction Community Center.

Members of the public can log-in to the online meeting by going to the Fort Greely Facebook page or the Corps of Engineers’ SM-1A project web  page. That’s also where they can find out how to offer comments on two documents the Corps has recently issued on the SM-1A project.