Missing H-Bomb Found off Georgia Coast?!!

I didn't know one was missing but this possible find goes back to an aircraft incident in the 1950's.

H-Bomb Found?!



How many more of these accidently dropped bombs are around, does anyone know?

[edit on 21-7-2004 by JacKatMtn]

1/31/58, Overseas Base
A B-47 carrying a nuclear weapon "in strike configuration" crashes on a runway and burns. The contamination is locally contained. (DOD)

1/24/61, Goldsboro, North Carolina
A B-52 on airborn alert begins to breakup, due to stuctural flaws in a wing, and subsequently releases two nuclear bombs. The automatic parachute of one bomb fails, and the bomb breaks apart when it lands. Of the six interlocking safety mechanisms which must be activated in sequence to set off the bomb, five are triggered, leaving only one switch in the way of detonation of the 24 megaton warhead. Additionally, a portion of uranium from the bomb is lost and never recovered. (Lapp. DOD.)

3/14/61, Yuba City, California
A B-52 armed with two nuclear weapons loses cabin pressure in flight, forcing the crew to bail out after steering the plane away from populated areas. The crash tears the weapons from the plane. There is no contamination or explosion. (DOD)

12/5/65, Pacific Ocean
An A-4 aircraft loaded with a nuclear weapon falls off an aircraft carrier. The weapon is lost in the ocean (along with pilot and plane). (DOD)

1/17/66, Palomares, SPAIN
An airborn B-52 carrying four multi-megaton nuclear weapons crashes into a refueling tanker and drops all four weapons. Two of the explosive triggers for the weapons detonate, contaminating 1,500 tons of soil and plant life, which is subsequently stored in the U.S. Two of the weapons are never recovered. (DOD)

1/21/68, Thule, GREENLAND
A B-52 carrying four multi-megaton nuclear weapons crashes on its landing approach. The weapons are destroyed in the fire. 237,000 cubic feet of radioactive ice and debris are removed and stored in the United States. (DOD)

source: www.efn.org...

-koji K.

[edit on 21-7-2004 by koji_K]

Good info Koji, it appears there are several of these lying around with just waiting to be detonated. I know the Georgia one it stated it did not have the plutonium needed for the weapon to go "nuclear", but it still is essence a Huge "dirty bomb", is this a correct assessment?

Originally posted by JacKatMtn
Good info Koji, it appears there are several of these lying around with just waiting to be detonated. I know the Georgia one it stated it did not have the plutonium needed for the weapon to go "nuclear", but it still is essence a Huge "dirty bomb", is this a correct assessment?

hrmm... good question. i'm not big on science, so i'm not sure how it works exactly. i'd imagine by now, the chances of any detonation of these missing bombs is very low, since the mechanisms are probably very rusted from being submerged all these years. i would think the biggest threat they pose is the casing rusting to the point where the plutonium gets washed away into the sea.. if these are near coastal areas, it could affect the health of swimmers and sealife. i'm not sure if there's enough plutonium for it to be harmful though.

anyone else know?

also, i was thinking- the above list is only american weapons lost. i'm sure the soviets had their share of missing weapons too.. so there's probably quite a few lost nukes lying around.

-koji K.

[edit on 21-7-2004 by koji_K]

Nuclear weapons don't age well. Nukes function based on very accurate detonators and detonation charges. Over time the core decays, as does the electronics. My guess is that the only thing one could get from one of the old lost bombs is some weapons grade uranium though I'd think radioactive decay would even ruin the core after a certain amount of time.

Nukes aren't exactly impossible to get. It would be easier and cheaper to buy one on the red market than hunt down one of the missing ones. And yes, you can buy nukes on the red market, in 1997 two FBI agents were offered a pair of nukes... in Florida.

this is complete crap, if the air force is going to start "accidently" dropping bombs, who knows what will happen next. Hell, i should move to another planet if they keep it up.

Here is a good listing I found:
U. S. NUCLEAR WEAPONS ACCIDENTS (all-CAPS theirs, not mine) Some of these accidents are stunningly scary!

This is probably the accident in question.

February 5, 1958, Savannah River, Georgia

A nuclear weapon without a fissile core was lost following a mid-air collision. A B-47 bomber carrying a nuclear weapon without its fissile core collided with a F-86 aircraft near Savannah, Georgia. Following three unsuccessful attempts to land the plane at Hunter Air Force Base in Georgia, the weapon was jettisoned to avoid the risk of a high explosive detonation at the base. The weapon was jettisoned into the water several miles from the mouth of Savannah River in Wassaw Sound off Tybee Beach, but the precise point of impact is unknown. The weapon's high explosives did not detonate on impact. A subsequent search covering three square miles used divers and sonar devices, but failed to find the weapon. The search was ended on April 16, 1958, and the weapon was considered to be irretrievably lost.

There are many ''Broken Arrows'' across america. But theres even more at the bottom of the ocean. There are 92 known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea. You know its scary when it happens so often it gets its own name.

Originally posted by koji_K
1/17/66, Palomares, SPAIN
An airborn B-52 carrying four multi-megaton nuclear weapons crashes into a refueling tanker and drops all four weapons. Two of the explosive triggers for the weapons detonate, contaminating 1,500 tons of soil and plant life, which is subsequently stored in the U.S. Two of the weapons are never recovered. (DOD)

That is not entirely accurate. The two bombs broke up as scattered the plutonium accross a number of farm fields.

A B-52 collided with an Air Force KC-135 jet tanker while refueling over the coast of Spain, killing eight of the eleven crew members and igniting the KC-135's 40,000 gallons of jet fuel. Two hydrogen bombs ruptured, scattering radioactive particles over the fields of Palomares; a third landed intact near the village of Palomares; the fourth was lost at sea 12 miles off the coast of Palomares and required a search by thousands of men working for three months to recover it. Approximately 1,500 tons of radioactive soil and tomato plants were removed to the U.S. for burial at a nuclear waste dump in Aiken, S.C. The U.S. eventually settled claims by 522 Palomares residents at a cost of $600,000, and gave the town the gift of a $200,000 desalinizing plant.

a better list

I have always wondered about the Georgia H Bomb and I've had high hopes that it would be found and disarmed before it could be set off.

There is a major fault line that runs just off the Georgia coast. I'm
sure that if an H bomb was to go off on it .... KABOOM! .... the fault
line would let loose and everything from Maine to Georgia on the coast
would be destroyed by the earthquake or the resulting tidal wave.

Hope they get that sucker disarmed FAST!

good one!

I think they should put trackind devices on nukes, H-Bombs ect. just in case of a broken arrow event. that way the can retrive it before it falls into the wrong hands. Does anyone agree?

Here's a document referring to the 1956 nuclear accident that occurred at the US Airbase at Lakenheath, UK.



If that MK6 had burst...goodbye eastern England. At that time, a nuclear weapon burst at a US Airbase could have initiated a nuclear response. It's likely that no-one would have waited to investigate whether it was an own goal.


After a long campaign by Guardian journalist Rob Evans, the UK Ministry of Defence released a list of UK Broken Arrows.


www.guardian.co.uk...

MoD catalogues its nuclear blunders

Ombudsman forces disclosure of list of mishaps from 1960 to 1991 in which weapons were dropped or their carriers had road accidents

Rob Evans
Monday October 13, 2003
The Guardian

British nuclear weapons have been repeatedly dropped, struck by other weapons, and on one occasion carried on a truck that slid down a hill and toppled over, the Ministry of Defence has admitted after decades of secrecy.
The department has been forced to publish a list of 20 accidents and mishaps with nuclear weapons between 1960 and 1991, following a critical verdict from the parliamentary ombudsman.

No incidents have been reported since then. The list shows that trucks carrying nuclear weapons on British roads overturned on two occasions, and cars crashed into two convoys.

Nuclear weapons were dropped or fell on four occasions, and other munitions struck the atomic weapons four times. Four of the incidents happened abroad, in Germany, Malta and near Hong Kong.

Sir Kevin Tebbit, the MoD's permanent secretary, has had to disclose the list following a six-year "open government" campaign by the Guardian. The MoD initially blocked the request submitted in 1997, prompting the newspaper to lodge a complaint with the ombudsman, Ann Abraham.

Finding the MoD guilty of maladministration, the ombudsman dismissed its objections and ruled that disclosing the information would not endanger the security of the nation. She also criticised the ministry for the "inordinate delay" in releasing the list.

One accident hushed up by the MoD was in 1960 in Lincolnshire. According to the MoD, "an RAF nuclear weapon load carrier, forming part of a convoy, experienced a brake failure on an incline and overturned". The MoD gives no other details, but insists "there was no damage to any nuclear weapon".

Three years later, on the border of Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire, there was another "brake failure on a nuclear weapon load carrier". The MoD does not give further details, but again says no weapons were damaged. Another brake failure happened in June 1985 near Glasgow.

Since Britain started making nuclear weapons in the early 1950s, convoys have regularly transported missiles hundreds of miles on motorways and other roads from bases to the atomic weapons factories at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire.

These convoys continue today, as the warheads have a very short shelf-life and constantly have to be refurbished and rebuilt to keep them safe.

There have been at least two accidents with US nuclear weapons on British soil, both at Lakenheath in Suffolk. In 1956, a bomber careered out of control and ploughed into a bomb dump housing three nuclear weapons, tearing it apart. The bomber exploded and threw burning fuel over all three nuclear weapons. One official US cable reported that it was a "miracle" that one bomb with "exposed detonators" did not explode.

In 1961, a warplane loaded with a nuclear bomb caught fire, leaving the weapon "scorched and blistered".

For decades, the MoD refused to disclose any information on nuclear accidents, as it did not want to confirm or deny presence of weapons at any particular time or place. But the ombudsman decided that national security could not be compromised, as the weapons in the accidents had been taken out of service.
The MoD's list is based on incomplete records. From military sources, the Guardian has learnt of three other mishaps. In 1988, a WE177 nuclear bomb was dented after it was dropped at RAF Marham, Norfolk. Another WE177 fell off a workstand in 1976 at RAF Honington, Suffolk, while being loaded on to a plane. In 1967, a Vulcan bomber carrying a nuclear weapon was struck by lightning at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire.

Read the UK Broken Arrow list here

image.guardian.co.uk...

image.guardian.co.uk...

image.guardian.co.uk...

image.guardian.co.uk...


zero lift

Obviously Georgia has been hiding WMDs and we will have to take preemtive measures. GWB is a man of decisive action and will be sending troops in, unless the Govenor of Georgia agrees to leave the state.

Pssst. . .I hope he knows it's the Georgia, USA and not Soviet Georgia.

Originally posted by Quest
Nuclear weapons don't age well. Nukes function based on very accurate detonators and detonation charges. Over time the core decays, as does the electronics. My guess is that the only thing one could get from one of the old lost bombs is some weapons grade uranium though I'd think radioactive decay would even ruin the core after a certain amount of time.

Uranium-235 half-life, the time to have its radioactivity reduced 50%, is 700.000.000 years, so i think even if it was 100 years old that uranium could still be put to some use...

The bomb was not dropped by accident. It was ejected by the crew after their B47 bomber had a mid air collision. It was decided to drop it in the water rather than risk fire due to a crash landing. The 12 foot long H-bomb could not be found, and because it was carried during a training exercise without the detonation mechanism they left it buried. The main hazard of the bomb remains the large amount of conventional explosive inside.

These convoys continue today, as the warheads have a very short shelf-life and constantly have to be refurbished and rebuilt to keep them safe.

This line from the Brittish disclosure makes me feel all safe and warm.

I do not think they are referring to something unique to their devices.

This would seem to suggest that nukes do not age well, as wine does.

Which is to say they do not "Fail Safe" from aging.

[edit on 20-6-2008 by Cyberbian]