I was watching this on Discovery Channel (Or Military channel- one of them...) and they talked about a B-47 that accidentally (or necessarily) released it's nuclear bomb near Savannah, GA 50 years ago. It's been lost every since, but it's out there somewhere.

They've had all sorts of military and civilians looking where computer models said it should be, but was never found. They showed a blast map, and if that thing ever blew, pretty much every one from Tybee Island to a circular radius of 210 miles, would either be killed immediately, or seriously poisoned by fallout.

I'm not sure of the risk- I was casually paying attention to it, and eventually deleted it from my DVR- but I think they were concerned about what, if any, long term possibilities might be at play with the salt-water and those components. I'm really surprised the never found the damn thing...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=18587608

I hope they found it, and have just been BSing all this time. That'd be one time it'd be cool to be getting lied to.

Other nucler uh-oh's....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...lear_accidents

 

I've heard that and also that the Russians were caught snooping around in the area a few times. I guess we will need to wait for the Wikileak.

 

I read several years ago where this 'story' was leaked to entice the Soviet subs into Wassaw Sound. It may have actually worked.

 

Indeed... I agree. Deception is a key strategy to get folks to act how you'd like them to... I certainly hope we weren't really being that careless with nukes. They aren't exactly firecrackers...

 

If this thing is actually out there and was to somehow to go off.... I would be screwed...

 

Very improbably. Most nuclear weapons do not detonate when they hit the ground, They detonate ~500-700 feet above the ground, so two shockwaves slam into the earth instead of one. First off, you would have to bypass the safety mechanism (basically like three fuses in the circuitry). Once the firing pins are in place and complete the circuit, the systems have to be primed by a bombardier onboard the aircraft. Depending on the year it was lost, it could or could not have used the security codes that arms them (bascially the string of phonetic letters in the President's Football, but on a different level.) Once its armed, at is drops through the atmosphere, baromatric pressure switches arm the fuses one after another allowing the circuit to reach farther and farther into the weapon as it passes alitude checkpoints (25,000 to 10,000 to 5,000 to 2,000 and so on). Once it reaches its designated altitude, the electrode fires and the plutonium is fired into its target. Of course this is all based on an out-dated gun-type atomic weapon (1950s).

There has never been an accidental detonation of any U.S. nuclear weapon. There HAVE been incidents that involved leakage of radiation of somesort. But the chances of that weapon detonating are so slim that you would have to go find it and hit with a hammer to even think about increasing the odds

 

Why would they have a nuclear device installed for a training mission? Just wondering.

The jet's that scrambled to escort suspicious planes on 9/11 didn't even have a bullet.

 

I remember hearing about this when I was in HS. They where not nuclear but are still super high grade explosives never to be found or at least reported. This article doesn’t talk about it in detail but I remember hearing he dropped the unarmed war heads long before crashing sense they did not find them with the wreck. So somewhere in the mountains of Colorado these things still sit. I would assume even thou it was only 15 years ago it would be like looking for a needle in a hay stack sense he flew something like 400 miles of course.

Big money to who ever finds them or big trouble one of the 2 LOL.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_D._Button

 

The world can't find Bin Laden, so i'd say the nuke is safe.

 

Happened ALL the time. It has been said the weight of the bombs made the sircraft handle differently, they wanted the crews to train as they would have to fight. they were carried on operational missions too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Chrome_Dome

just one of the live nuke operations they have had.


"Operation Chrome Dome was one of several United States Air Force Cold-War era airborne global alert duties or programs in which B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber aircraft armed with thermonuclear weapons were assigned targets in the Soviet Union on schedules guaranteeing that a substantial number of them were flying and fueled for their missions at any given time."

And the USA transport their inventory mostly by Truck:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101122/...nuke_drivers_2


Overflight of the US with live Nukes is prohibited.

 

I think there was an American Nuke accidentally dropped in the straits of Gibraltar one time.
there was also a movie about it, that had Cuba Gooding Jr. in it. But I can't remember the name of the movie. The movie was fiction, but was based on fact.

 

Yep, that was the one with him and Robert Deniro.

Yes, there were at least four (that I counted) incidents of nukes being lost (over water), that were real bombs, but unarmed. One in the Rockies, one off the coast of Georgia, one in the Mediterranean, and one over the Pacific. Most off of these involved the B-47 Bomber...

Now I see why we replaced it so quickly.

 

Evidently not quickly enough.

 

Any rumors going around of one being "accidentally" dropped near/on North Korea anytime soon? I think its just about necessary.

 

hmmm interesting.... glad to know that I am safe!! hahaha