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Report: Nuke that fell on N.C. in 1961 almost exploded when B-52 crashed
One of two hydrogen bombs that a doomed B-52 accidentally dropped on North Carolina in 1961 came perilously close to exploding, according to a recently declassified report. The 4-megaton Mark 39 bombs, each packing 260 times the explosive power of the weapon that decimated Hiroshima, broke loose over Goldsboro, N.C., as the bomber went into a tailspin and crashed. Radioactive fallout could have spread over the Eastern Seaboard, hitting Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, 3 days… (www.usatoday.com) More...
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Don't waste that WMD. We're gonna need it.
Ya think Wallace?
Yes. Just a matter of time.
I think we've got about 5,000 to spare...
The conventional explosives in a nuclear weapon are set off by dozens to hundreds of carefully timed igniters, so the fissile core is symmetrically crushed to very high density and producing the very brief but powerful chain reaction that ignites the thermonuclear second stage. If the explosives go off randomly, no symmetry, no chain reaction, no fission explosion, no fusion ignition. Just the materials in the bomb (some mildly radioactive, like tritium) scattered within a few yards of the impact. This would not be a 4 megaton explosion, it would be far less than the explosive energy of the plane crash.
Don't look for science in USA Today or Mother Jones. We should hate nuclear weapons because they turn us into arrogant monsters. Fear of nuclear armed "enemies" is why we (and the "enemies") built so many of the damned things, and more fear leads to more conflict.
Don't look for science in USA Today or Mother Jones. We should hate nuclear weapons because they turn us into arrogant monsters. Fear of nuclear armed "enemies" is why we (and the "enemies") built so many of the damned things, and more fear leads to more conflict.
One of the bombs went through the same exact sequence it would have had it been intentionally dropped; the only thing that prevented the actual nuclear detonation was a single switch. It wasn't the impact that was the concern, it was the fact that the bomb would have gone off like it was supposed to. "When the bomb hit the ground, a firing signal was sent to the nuclear core of the device, and it was only that final, highly vulnerable switch that averted calamity."
But for the other bomb, you are correct. That one pretty much disintegrated upon impact, scattering radioactive material in a field.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/usaf-atomic-bomb-north-carolina-1961
But for the other bomb, you are correct. That one pretty much disintegrated upon impact, scattering radioactive material in a field.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/20/usaf-atomic-bomb-north-carolina-1961
Keith is certainly right about the last part...this is a half century old one day story published for a little headline sensationalism and undoubtedly a philosophical agenda. If they were all that concerned about mankind and man created genocide they could discuss the Stockholm Convention responsible for 34 million deaths as opposed to none here or they could just acknowledge that the devise worked as designed and there was no explosion.
