So here is what I know about McMurdo.

It's an American post, the NATO flag (nor any other) flies there.

It's famous for it's ice chambers, and the research done there. A lot of really good (and just damn expensive) research has been done there.

They are underground. Through the ice. Part of that is simple physics, there is 65 degree air not too far under the surface of the ground and it keeps the temps manageable in the whole station. I believe that the Americans have gone significantly past that need. Some of the ice palace is full of dirt. How much? I have no idea.

There is a British station fairly near McMurdo and a Russian station not too far away. The three stations are cooperating and HAVE ALWAYS COOPERATED. Even in the depths of the cold war when we were minutes away from a nuclear exchange. Why?

It's little enough, and nothing that can't be found by anyone.

Family pays the price? I know of one case of that. One of my very best friends was involved in one of America's most secret projects of the cold war. It is now declassified but not widely discussed. The US had a direct tap on the phone cable to the Russian base at Vladivostok. It had to be serviced every 6 months and he was part of the dive team that did that. We had every communication to and from Moscow to the Russian Pacific fleet and kept that going for over 10 years.

Anyway. There was one member of his team that told his wife and she told somebody. All of them ended up in Federal custody and stayed there for better than 15 years. It was a top secret tribunal that sentenced them and NOBODY has detail one.