Scientists seek lost H-bomb off Georgia (1 of 11 “broken arrows”)

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Spurred by what appear to be unusual radiation readings offshore, the U.S. government is sending a team of 20 scientists to try to find a hydrogen bomb lost off the Georgia coast in 1958.

Scientists from the Pentagon and the National Labs met on Wednesday with Derek Duke, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who has searched for the missing 7,600-pound nuke over the past five years.

Duke has detected what he believes are unusual radiation readings in Wassaw Sound near Tybee Island.

A B-47 bomber dumped the H-bomb into the Atlantic Ocean 46 years ago after the plane collided with a fighter jet during a training flight. Navy divers searched the shallow, murky waters near Tybee Island for nearly 10 weeks before declaring the bomb irretrievably lost.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6133468/

:faints:

There's a good list of all the nuclear accidents that are public knowledge here (including lost nuclear weapons): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_accidents

... we can lose a dozen and barely miss 'em.

Those are just the ones that the U.S. alone admits to having lost and never recovered. I've heard Greenpeace estimates that worldwide, there have been 40 more non-U.S. nuclear bombs accidently lost.

searched the ocean the bays the swamps looked everywhere; Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit Two out of Charleston, South Carolina.

180

Geez when I read the title of this thread I was thinking it was Georgia as in part of the former Soviet Union but it's here. And 11 are missing? What else don't we know about.

told me about this long ago

Hi Ed

At least a couple years ago.

Nonetheless, it's still pretty stinking scary. :scared:

There were incidents where weapons high explosive detonated from fire or drop, no nuclear detonation, but scattered plutonium all over Spain or Portugal.

180 would be the source but I think a weapon sunk for that long could not be armed, fused, and fired..

There is extensive military documentation on nuclear incidents on the web.

Now the Russian lost ordinance is another story..They sink reactor cores from subs in the ocean to dispose of them.

if you had it, you could probably make it squib or at least a VERY dirty bomb. You would most likely kill yourself due to radiation poisoning in the process, but you wouldn't want your enemies to get their hands on one.

http://www.cdi.org/Issues/NukeAccidents/accidents.htm

We actually bombed Canada once!

Implosion weapon go BOOOOOM put big hole in the ground. Whoops.

180

January 10, 1984, Warren AFB, Cheyenne, Wyoming

Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, recorded a message that one of its Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles was about to launch from its silo due to a computer malfunction. To prevent the possible launch, an armored car was parked on top of the silo.


Can you imagine being an MP at that base and having some superior officer run up to you and say "Hey oneighty, we think the nuke in silo four is about to launch. I want you to go park your truck on it to keep it from going anywhere".

Jeebus!

But one time they wanted me to run up to a burning oil storage tank and place some C4 and hopefully blow a hole in the tank and drain it. Charleston S.C. Lotta strange happenings around there.

Somebody decided that was a stupid idea. I thought so too.

Anyway Missile Silo in Cheyenne be a job for super special AIR FORCE EODs. Not Navy.

180

Click on video to the right to see the damage.
http://www.vce.com/brokearrow.html

I have always heard it referred to as the Aiken Incident.I have seen on TV some of those films. It was a very good program concerning weapons incidents.

180

to reset a circuit breaker. To get there in a B-47, you had to walk across the weapon. While he was performing the task, the aircraft hit turbulence and the bombadier grabbed for the closest support -- the cable which releases the bomb. The weapon dropped and forced the bomb bay doors open as it fell, giving the bombadier a good view of the South Carolina countryside three miles below as he hung on for dear life.

The doors finally closed and the bombardier was able to make it back to the cockpit, where he got to explain to the pilot why the aircraft had suddenly lurched upwards.

This was related to me by a former B-47 bombardier.

... and a big ooops at that! Thanks for sharing! :thumbsup:

And I raced sailboats down there for years in the 70's! I even raced against Ted Turner once (open-class catamarans). I was sailing a Nacra 5.2, Turner was on a Hobie 18. He smoked my ass.

Not sure if it was dumped or sank or what.

Flip through this amazing site about the Chernobyl disaster and its modern day effects if you want to be totally fascinated and at the same time creeped out by the potential of a serious nuclear accident.

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/

GDoyle

:thumbsup:

but lots of nasty stuff intentionally dumped off the Farralon islands (small rock outcroppings) off San Francisco. Lots of barrels of hazardous stuff. Fun for the whole family.

"The Air Force argued that the bomb, believed buried in 10 to 15 feet of mud, would pose a greater threat if disturbed"

If that thing blows up from rust or whatever, I wonder what it does to the marine life, would there be a huge tidal wave, etc

You need to ignite an outer wrapping of conventional high-explosives to compress the uranium or plutonium together to achieve critical mass. Almost 50 yrs underwater would have most likely degraded the explosives to the point they could never be detonated. However, there is the possibility of highly radioactive material, such as plutonium, leaking out of the bomb if a hole has rusted through it. That would be very dangerous to the local marine life indeed.