Image courtesy of Marshall Astor/Wikimedia Commons.Browse our collection of oral histories with workers, families, service members, and more about their experiences in the Manhattan Project.Tour some of the key locations of the Manhattan Project with an audio guide.Copyright © 2019 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. The wrecked bomber caught fire and several brave men rushed to extinguish the flames before they detonated the conventional explosives of the nuke. Thankfully nothing happened, but it is unsettling that such a mistake could happen that would lead to nuclear weapons flying unprotected over the heart of America, especially considering this happened less than a decade ago.Nuclear Bombing training exercises were common during the tense 1950s, and if you think about it, it’s not surprising that an accident might occur. It is unknown how radioactive the site would be, though it is thankfully a very sparsely populated region. ... according to a Los Alamos report on nuclear accidents. The nuclear chain reaction necessary to set off the bomb did not occur because the bomb’s fissionable plutonium component was stored separately aboard the aircraft. It made one stop but was lost in the clouds somewhere above the African continent before its second scheduled refueling. Here are a few of the most frightening accidents or close calls.With the Cold War raging, the U.S. decided that it was essential to test the effectiveness of nuclear bombing runs in extreme cold if they ever had to retaliate during a cold Russian winter. Cold War paranoia nearly led to a nuclear disaster 50 years ago, when an American B-52 bomber exploded over Spain and dropped four hydrogen bombs near the tiny village of … The bomb was ultimately found and extracted from the ocean on April 7. One bomb deployed its parachute as designed and landed harmlessly, in what former Secretary of the Air Force Thomas C. Reed calls “a silent testimonial to the care of those who designed, engineered, and built those U.S. nukes.” However, the conventional explosives in two bombs went off, contaminating surrounding farms (see below).The fourth bomb parachuted several miles off the coast and landed in the Mediterranean Sea. The B-52 was part of the United States Air Force’s Operation “Chrome Dome,” in which Strategic Air Command constantly flew bombers armed with thermonuclear weapons in order to provide the US with a first strike capability over the USSR in event of a “hot” confrontation.While flying at an altitude of 31,000 feet, the B-52 bomber approached the KC-135 tanker for a routine aerial refueling at around 10:30 am. One of the deadliest nuclear accidents aside from reactor meltdowns, the Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base accident cost 19 lives and injured over 100 people. The collision caused an explosion that ignited the tanker, killing all four crew members on board. The bomb was about 2 billion dollars, but the military settled the issue out of court for an undisclosed amount. The aircraft was a part of a Strategic Air Command (SAC) mission designed to keep a significant number of bombers in air at all times, so that in the event of a Soviet first strike they would not be damaged or destroyed. The bomb was buried deep in the silt, and months of searching couldn’t recover the nuclear bomb.

In 2006, the Spanish Center for Energy Research (CIEMAT) discovered radioactive snails in the area. AHF Board member Robert S. Norris, then a research associate for the National Resources Defense Council, In the early morning of January 24, 1961, a B-52 bomber carrying two Mark 39 nuclear weapons crashed near Goldsboro, North Carolina.

Image courtesy of RJHaas/Wikimedia Commons.Crew members on the USS Petrel after the recovery of the missing H-bomb, 1966.Two of the recovered Palomares bombs at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.

A B-52 collided with its refueling tanker, breaking the refueling arm and exploding the fuel tanker.

Nuclear bombs, the ultimate weapons of mass destruction. Eventually, the bomb’s parachute got stuck on a tree, leaving the weapon mostly intact.Today, experts differ on how close the weapon came to detonating and how many of the arming procedures it underwent. Ten bombers were scheduled to fly from California to Guam, each carrying a nuclear bomb. Thankfully no one in the town was killed, but they were given a desalinization plant to ensure clean drinking water, as well as a half a million dollars in various settlements.

The explosion killed all four crewmen of the tanker and three men in the bomber.

Ambassador to Spain Angier Biddle Duke went for a swim in a nearby beach to prove the water was safe. The bomb was a 26-kiloton Mark 6, a more powerful version of the Fat Man dropped on Nagasaki. One analysis holds that the weapon only did not detonate because its arm/safe switch, controlled by the pilot, was still set on safe. Of the seven crew members aboard the bomber, four ejected and parachuted to safety while three were killed.Approximately 24 hours after the collision, U.S. servicemen and disaster control teams located, secured, and recovered the three hydrogen bombs that fell on land. Some uranium remains at the crash site, where the US Air Force performs regular inspection to test for radioactive contamination. Sometimes partially active bombs are lost and sometimes several men are lost as well.

However, the bomber’s incoming speed was too fast and caused the aircraft to collide with the tanker’s fueling boom.

It carried two nuclear cores, though it lacked the explosives for detonation. Since 1950, the Defense Department At 11:50 a.m. local time on May 22, 1957, a B-36 aircraft jettisoned an unarmed Mark 17 ten-megaton hydrogen bomb over Albuquerque, New Mexico. Additionally, medical treatment centers were set up to monitor residents who had been exposed to the plutonium. A B-36 bomber was loaded with a nuclear weapon containing plenty of conventional explosives and uranium, though it lacked the plutonium core required for a full detonation.As the bomber was flying from Alaska to Florida, it did indeed have problems with the cold weather after flying for about six hours. A Feb. 25,1955 view of the well-guarded Los Alamos, N.M. birthplace of the A-bomb and other thermonuclear weapons.