[news.yahoo.com]

Fear at the tap: Uranium contaminates water in the West

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — In a trailer park tucked among irrigated orchards that help make California's San Joaquin Valley the richest farm region in the world, 16-year-old Giselle Alvarez, one of the few English-speakers in the community of farmworkers, puzzles over the notices posted on front doors: There's a danger in their drinking water.

Uranium, the notices warn, tests at a level considered unsafe by federal and state standards. The law requires the park's owner to post the warnings. But they are awkwardly worded and mostly in English, a language few of the park's dozens of Spanish-speaking families can read.

"It says you can drink the water — but if you drink the water over a period of time, you can get cancer," said Alvarez, whose working-class family has no choice but keep drinking and cooking with the tainted tap water. "They really don't explain."

Uranium, the stuff of nuclear fuel for power plants and atom bombs, increasingly is showing in drinking water systems in major farming regions of the U.S. West — a natural though unexpected byproduct of irrigation, drought, and the overpumping of natural underground water reserves.

An Associated Press investigation in California's central farm valleys — along with the U.S. Central Plains, among the areas most affected — found authorities are doing little to inform the public at large of the risk.

That includes the one out of four families on private wells in this farm valley who, unknowingly, are drinking dangerous amounts of uranium. Government authorities say long-term exposure to uranium can damage kidneys and raise cancer risks, and scientists say it can have other harmful effects.

In this swath of farmland, roughly 250 miles long and encompassing cities, up to one in 10 public water systems have raw drinking water with uranium levels that exceed safety standards, the U.S. Geological Survey has found.

More broadly, nearly 2 million people in California's Central Valley and the U.S. Midwest live within a half-mile of groundwater containing uranium over the health limits, University of Nebraska researchers said in a study in September.

Entities ranging from state agencies to tiny rural schools are scrambling to deal with hundreds of tainted public wells.

That includes water wells at the Westport Elementary School, where 450 children study outside the Central California farm hub of Modesto.

At Westport's playground, schoolchildren take a break from tether ball to sip from fountains marked with Spanish and English placards: "SAFE TO DRINK."

The school is one of about 10 water-well systems in Central California that have installed on-site uranium removal facilities in recent years. Prices range from $65,000 to millions of dollars.

Just off Westport's playground, a school maintenance chief jangles the keys to the school's treatment operation, locked in a shed. Inside, a system of tubes, dials and canisters resembling scuba tanks removes up to a pound a year of uranium from the school's well water.

The uranium gleaned from local water systems is handled like the nuclear material it is — taken away by workers in masks, gloves and other protective garments, said Ron Dollar, a vice president at Water Remediation Technology, a Colorado-based firm. It is then processed into nuclear fuel for power plants, Dollar said.

Before treatment, Westport's water tests up to four times state and federal limits. After treatment, it's safe for the children, teachers and staff to drink.

Meanwhile, the city of Modesto, with a half-million residents, recently spent more than $500,000 to start blending water from one contaminated well to dilute the uranium to safe levels. The city has retired a half-dozen other wells with excess levels of uranium.


State officials don't track spending on uranium-contaminated wells. But the state's Water Resources Control Board identified at least $16.7 million the state has spent since 2010 helping public water systems deal with high levels of uranium.

In coming years, more public water systems likely will be compelled to invest in such costly fixes, said Miranda Fram, a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey in Sacramento.

Fram and her colleagues believe the amount of uranium increased in Central Valley drinking water supplies over the last 150 years with the spread of farming.

In California, as in the Rockies, mountain snowmelt washes uranium-laden sediment to the flatlands, where groundwater is used to irrigate crops.

Irrigation allows year-round farming, and the irrigated plants naturally create a weak acid that is leeching more and more uranium from sediment.

Groundwater pumping pulls the contaminated water down into the earth, where it is tapped by wells that supply drinking water.

The USGS calculates that the average level of uranium in public-supply wells of the eastern San Joaquin Valley increased 17 percent from 1990 to the mid-2000s. The number of public-supply wells with unsafe levels of uranium, meantime, climbed from 7 percent to 10 percent over the same period there.

"We should not have any doubts as to whether drinking water with uranium in it is a problem or not. It is," said Doug Brugge, professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. "The larger the population that's drinking this water, the more people that are going to be affected."

In California, changes in water standards since the late 2000s have mandated testing for uranium in public water systems.

For private well-owners and small water systems, however, officials were unable to point to any public health campaigns in the most-affected areas, or any help testing or dealing with uranium-contaminated wells.


"When it comes to private domestic wells, we do what we can to get the word out. It's safe to say that there's always more than can be done," said John Borkovich, head of water quality at the state Water Resources Control Board.

The Associated Press commissioned independent sampling of wells at five homes in the countryside outside Modesto. The results: Water from two of the five private wells tested over the government maximums for uranium — in fact, two and three times the maximum.

None of the five families had ever heard that uranium could be a problem.

"It would be nice to be informed, so we can make an informed decision, and those wells can be tested," said Michelle Norleen, one of the five, who was later relieved to learn her own water had tested safe.

___

Manuel Valdes and Serdar Tumgoren contributed to this report.

The central valley ís a very toxic place thanks to chemical farming.
Íts an untold story the amounts of cancers to migrant farm Workers.
Just not in the count, price òf produce. chemical farming has made that valley deadly.
Chemical farming has destroyed móst òf top soils in America
Also most ground water toxic from the miricle of modern agg
Agg in the 20th century has to be one òf our worst moves in modern times

Just across street from the central Valley we have tést site Mercury where the USA and England have been testing nuke bombs for decades Thosands of below ground and many above test that VENTED! google the down winders of test site Mercury every human on thí planet has unnaturel Radiation in the base ò skull do to thís toxic courupt industry.
Thanks to activist the site hás bêen closed but still hotter than hell will ever be
May the gods help our children and future generations
RHB Life member Aliance Of Atomic Vêterans



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2015 10:33AM by riverhousebill.

Nuclear Testing
Radiation Death and Deception
Nuclear Testing and the Downwinders




The History of Iron County
War in Asia caused the United States to reconsider testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific Ocean and to look for a continental test site. Conflict in Korea justified a less-expensive continental testing site in order to maintain U.S. nuclear weapons superiority. A Nevada site north of Las Vegas was chosen because of its safety features, which included low population density, favorable meteorological conditions (a prevailing easterly wind blowing away from the populous west coast), and good geographical features--that is, hundreds of miles of flat, government-controlled land. On 27 January 1951, a one-kiloton bomb dropped from an airplane and detonated over Frenchman Flat marked the beginning of atmospheric nuclear testing in Nevada.

Relatively few Iron County residents were aware of or concerned about nuclear testing when the first mushroom-shaped cloud rose into the western skies and drifted to the northeast in 1951, but the cloud figuratively remains over southern Utah and Nevada to this day. Residents live with every day what the cloud left behind that the eye could not see. There are no southwestern Utah neighborhoods or communities that have not been touched by the tragedy of cancer or birth defects or lingering bitterness over human and financial losses.

Atomic Energy Commission press releases promised that atomic tests would be conducted "with adequate assurances of safety." Residents of southern Nevada and southern Utah who lived downwind of the tests initially believed what they were told; as one historian wrote, "Their faith and trust in their government would not allow them to even consider the possibility that the government would ever endanger their health." However, their experiences during and since the 1950s have convinced them of just the opposite--there was no safety for either people or livestock from atmospheric nuclear testing and the AEC knew it. Declassified transcripts released from 1978 to 1980 show that scientists knew as early as 1947 that fission products released by atomic bomb tests could be deadly to humans and animals exposed during and after the tests. The AEC chose to ignore warnings from its own scientists and outside medical researchers and continued with a "nothing-must-stop-the-tests" rationale.

Atomic testing during its first two years actually received very little attention in Iron County, if the pages of the Iron County Record are an accurate measure. Residents could read about detonations in statewide daily newspapers, but the local paper was more likely to describe civil defense preparedness. Residents were more concerned about the threat of nuclear attack from Russia. As elsewhere, children practiced bomb drills at school and residents began building bomb shelters and storing food so it would not become contaminated.

Scott M. Matheson, governor of Utah from 1977 to 1984 and a former Parowan and Cedar City resident, recalled life in Iron County during the early 1950s: "People in southern Utah were mainly concerned with making a living, and I don't recall anyone being too upset about the brilliant flashes and thunder-like blasts that were part of the 1953 atomic testing. The Upshot-Knothole series, conducted from March to June 1953, included the "Dirty Harry' exposure that carried an enormous amount of debris downwind, over southern Utah. People were concerned about the sheep deaths that occurred in May 1953, but when the AEC said there was nothing to worry about, we all just shrugged our shoulders. No one really accepted the malnutrition rationale, but we were used to accepting whatever the government said, especially during that very nationalistic period."

As part of a test site public-relations program in March 1953, some 600 observers were invited to view a test shot and its effect on manikins, typical homes, and automobiles in an effort to get Americans more interested in civil defense. Klien Rollo represented the Iron County Record at the media event. Observers watched the detonation seven miles from ground zero and later were taken into the test area, after debris and dust had settled. Rollo at first thought it was "his good fortune" to be invited to the test site, but not many weeks later the newspaper began questioning the safety of nuclear fall-out. It printed a long article by University of Utah student Ralph J. Hafen of St. George in which he wrote that he felt "morally obligated to warn people of the irreparable damage that may have occurred or may in the future occur" from exposure to radiation. He also called upon the AEC to explain why cars entering St. George were washed after the shot. Predicting later problems, he cautioned that "damage done to an individual by radiation often does not make itself known for five to ten years or a generation or more."

The sheep and their owners were Iron County's first victims of radioactivity. While being trailed across Nevada from winter range to the lambing yards at Cedar City, some 18,000-20,000 sheep were exposed to large quantities of radioactive fallout from tests in March and April 1953. Kern and McRae Bulloch first noticed burns on their animals' faces and lips where they had been eating radioactive grass. Then ewes began miscarrying in large numbers and at the lambing yards wool sloughed off in clumps revealing blisters on adult sheep. New lambs were stillborn with grotesque deformities or born so weak they were unable to nurse. Ranchers lost as much as a third of their herds.

Ranchers and preliminary veterinary investigators suspected radiation poisoning. The AEC had given Iron County agricultural agent Steven Brower a Geiger counter, a small radiation meter, to carry with him. At the sheep pens, he reported the "needle on my meter went clear off scale. We picked up high counts on the thyroid and on the top of the head, and there were lesions and scabs on the mouths and noses of the sheep." In early June the AEC sent teams of radiation experts to Cedar City to examine ailing animals. The dead carcasses had already been destroyed. The AEC reportedly forced its scientists to rewrite their field reports and eliminate any references to speculation about radiation damage or effects. The number of dead sheep represented a loss of a quarter of a million dollars to the ranchers, but Brower was told "that AEC could under no circumstance allow the precedent to be set in court or otherwise that AEC was liable or responsible for payment for radiation damage to either animals or humans."

In 1955-56, five lawsuits were brought by Iron County ranchers against the government alleging that atmospheric testing of nuclear devices in the spring of 1953 had damaged their herds. The ranchers and their young lawyer, Dan Bushnell, firmly believed that truth would win out and fair play would prevail. The first case, Bulloch v. United States, was processed and tried as representative of the others. It came before the court of Judge Sherman Christensen in September 1956. To the plaintiffs' dismay, technical data from government studies and testimony from government veterinarians regarding radiation damage gathered by the AEC was not presented. Instead, government expert witnesses testified that radiation damage could not have been a cause or a contributing cause to the sheep deaths. Attorney Bushnell tried without success to convince the judge that the government was covering up unfavorable material to protect itself and its program; however, although Judge Christensen ruled the government was negligent in monitoring the tests, he ruled for the government on the crucial issue of whether damage occurred as a result of atomic testing.

In 1979, congressional oversight hearings uncovered weighty evidence of AEC deception in 1956 and Judge Christensen reopened the suit. His fifty-six-page decision concluded that new information demonstrated that "a species of fraud" had been committed upon the court by government lawyers and federal employees acting "intentionally false or deceptive." He also noted improper attempts to pressure witnesses not to testify, a vital report intentionally withheld, and "deliberate concealment of significant facts with references to the possible effects of radiation upon the plaintiffs' sheep." He set aside his prior judgment and granted the sheepmen's motion for a new trial.

Dan Bushnell, who had waited more than twenty years hoping that the AEC files would become public record, assumed justice would finally be done. However, the U.S. Tenth Court of Appeals, in what has been called a "grotesque episode of American jurisprudence," rejected Judge Christensen's findings, maintaining that the material from the congressional hearings was not admissible under the rules of federal procedure. In the opinion of the appeals court, "nothing new" had been presented and it could see no reason to overturn the judgment of the court twenty-five years before. In 1986 the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the circuit court decision. By that time, the older-generation ranchers were dead or dying. Only two of the original families were still sheep ranching; all had suffered financial losses. Hope of ever recovering damages ended with the disappointing Supreme Court decision in 1986.

Within three to five years after atmospheric testing, leukemia and other radiation-caused cancers appeared in residents of Utah, Arizona, and Nevada living in areas where nuclear fallout had occurred. Communities in which childhood leukemia was rare or unknown had clusters of cases in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In the 1990s, people in Iron County believed that those who lived there in the 1950s were guinea pigs and victims, like the sheep. They have adopted the appellation "downwinders," signifying they lived "downwind" of atomic tests. Tests were usually conducted when the wind was blowing east or northeast in order to avoid fallout over more densely populated areas to the south and west, including Las Vegas and southern California. Iron County is centered in the fallout arc. Even though it is impossible to prove that any particular person died or was afflicted by cancer caused by radioactive fallout, the perception of people living in Iron County is that atmospheric nuclear testing brought an epidemic of cancer to the area. The link between radioactive exposure and tumors can, however, be drawn statistically. There is also a local perception that infertility, miscarriages, and birth defects are part of the legacy of living downwind of nuclear tests. Long-time residents of southwestern Utah are quite comfortable blaming a multitude of medical problems on nuclear testing and wonder how many future generations will be affected.

Even though House subcommittee hearings in 1979 found that the government was negligent, that fallout was a likely cause of both adverse health effects to downwind residents and the 1953 sheep losses, its report Health Effects of Low-level Radiation stated that a cause-and-effect link cannot be forged between low-level radiation exposure and cancer or other health effects. Since these might not appear for years or decades, the Federal Tort Claims Act is impossible to apply and compensation had to come through legislation.

Suits were nonetheless brought against the government by Navajo uranium miners, test-site workers, military servicemen forced to watch the tests, and downwind victims of radiation-caused cancers; all were unsuccessful. Twenty-four plaintiffs in one test case, Irene Allen v. United States, represented 1,200 individuals who were deceased or living victims of leukemia, cancer, or other radiation-caused illnesses. Eleven of the twenty-four lived in Iron County during the period of atmospheric testing. Two were children who died of leukemia; eight others died of various other cancers; only one of the eleven was alive in 1984.

Judge Bruce Jenkins issued a landmark decision that awarded damages to some victims. The government appealed, and, in 1986, the Tenth Circuit Court reversed Jenkins's judgment. In January 1988 the Supreme Court again refused to hear an appeal. In 1990, however, Congress passed and President George Bush signed into law the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which created a $100 million trust fund to compensate citizens who lived downwind from aboveground atomic tests and later were stricken with radiation-related illnesses before warnings of potential danger were issued. The act was later amended to remove the $100-million ceiling and to allow uranium miners and test-site workers to participate in the compensation. The legislation states in part: "The United States should recognize and assume responsibility for the harm done to these individuals. And Congress recognizes that the lives and health of uranium miners and of innocent individuals who lived downwind from the Nevada tests were involuntarily subjected to increased risk of injury and disease to serve the national security interests of the United States. The Congress apologizes on behalf of the Nation to the individuals...and their families for the hardship they have endured."

Some residents of Iron County, or their surviving family members, have been compensated by the fund. As of September 1994, 1,003 claims had been approved, 829 claims had been denied, and 125 were pending. Many who believe their cancer is fallout-related are prohibited from applying because of restrictions written into the legislation.

The end result is a more cynical attitude toward government. In recent years, many people in southern Utah have been skeptical of government promises and government studies. This was evident when the government was considering building the huge MX missile track in the Escalante Valley in 1980 and 1981; it carries over to wilderness issues and endangered-species battles of the 1990s.

During his term as Utah governor, Scott Matheson brought to the forefront of public awareness the problems faced by Utahns as a result of the nuclear testing. At the 1979 hearings he presented some 1,100 pages of testimony concerning the AEC cover-up and other research. All this was done before Matheson himself developed terminal cancer. His personal conclusion in 1986 was: "I am still angry about the way this issue was handled by the federal government. It points to a continuing need for governors to be vigilant concerning both short-term and long-term impacts of federal decisions on their residents. If citizens in a state are to be sacrificed for the 'national interest,' then, at the very least, those citizens need to be fully informed and protected as much as possible."


One more note Test site Mercury is the land of the Western Shoshnie Indians never sign a treaty never sold the land, It was stolen from them by DOD department of defence and the Doe department of energy The sacred Ruby Valley.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2015 02:34PM by riverhousebill.

Downwinders sickened and died from leukemia and cancer. As a young child, Claudia Boshell Peterson of St. George mourned as her playmates wasted away under the blows of leukemia and melanoma and lost limbs to cancer. As a mother, she agonized as her daughter Bethany succumbed to a tortuous death under the scalpel of neruoblastoma and leukemia. As a sister, she mourned as her sister Cathy, the mother of six, died from melanoma. Served a mess of pottage by the Tenth Circuit Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, the Downwinders turned to Congress for help. Largely because of the work of Utah's Senator Orrin Hatch and Congressman Wayne Owens, Congress passed and President George Bush approved the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act in 1990 under which the government apologized to the victims for the irresponsible behavior of managers at the Nevada Test Site and established a trust fund to pay for some of the injuries.

yes compensate after most had died, I heard this family speak at demo at site years back never forget!
The Aliance Of Atomic Veterans are the group that exposed and pushed the poly tics to admit truth. Anthony Gurisco we will never forget brother



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2015 03:04PM by riverhousebill.

International Meeting
2000 World Conference against A & H Bombs
Anthony Guarisco
Alliance of Atomic Veterans
U.S.A.


Dear friends, my name is Anthony Guarisco. I am the director of the Alliance of Atomic Veterans. I once again want to call your attention to a very special group of Japanese people who need our full and continuing support.

In America our Alliance of Atomic veterans respectfully view this group to be the first nuclear weapons experimental animals tortured and killed by the US military American atomic veterans know them as Hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Our atomic veterans have worked with the Hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the Nevada Test in America, AAV is committed to spread the true story of the Hibakusha and the unnecessary 1945 Atomic attacks by the U.S. Pentagon and it's military.

We note, that reasonable thinking people are shocked when informed that after fifty- five years the Hibakusha are still waiting for their Japanese government to do the right thing and bring closure to the Hibakusha issue. Closure, that can only happen when and after the government discontinue their abrasive stance towards the issue of compensation. For all Hibakusha.

It is long past the time to take the burden of Proof off the back of the victims (the Hibakusha), and put it where it belongs and that is on the back of the Japanese Government.

After seventeen years of supporting our brother and sister Hibakusha it is our observation that in terms of compensation for the Hibakasha this Japanese government appears NOT to be prepared to implement any kind of a compensation procedure for the Hibakasha. It is sad but true U.S. and Japanese governments are not reacting for the betterment of the Hibkusha or the people of Japan. For the government to fail to enact or deny the Japanese Hibakusha the opportunity to partake in a comprehensive compensation program is wrong.

For many years we have waited for the Japanese and American governments to put together a comprehensive compensation program for the Japanese Hibakusha.

When a Japanese or American government can just arbitrarily turn away from the needs of its people in need, that is a bad thing. When year after year the Hibakusha and atomic veterans have been denied compensation, that is a bad thing. When our governments know full well that its Hibakusha have lived 55 years with death and suffering and don't want to make a move to help, you have to ask yourself, has this Japanese or American government, taking the position that its more revenue enhance to just do nothing but wait. In time all the Hibakusha and the atomic veterans will be dead and only a small part of governments corrupt history. But make no mistake, the Japanese Hibakusha and the American Alliance of Atomic Veterans have did our homework. The world knows the true 1945 history of a corrupt group of white-racist pentagon warmongers who worked day and night to be able to test their new atomic weapon on the innocent men women and children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The rational for the US pentagon dastardly deed was, the Japanese were not white. Also the pentagon did a good job of demonizing the Japanese people. The bomb would keep the Soviet Union out of the Pacific Theater of war. And last but not least America would be the most powerful military and in every way the worst threat to all things on this planet.


Go back to the Menu

Tai, The central valley contamination is a drop in the bucket, no punt intended, Not to be little those folks their lives are just as important as elswhere. But
If you want to know more on this subject I could scare the daylites out of you.
Very few people know what Alliance Of Atomic Veterans know on this subject, Our group has done its homework here. What I cut and pasted here is just a few more drops of an Olymic size pool. if you want more on our nuclear leagcy say so, but you may lose sleep. It runs so very deep. The Nuclear Industry as I said before Is the MOST COURUPT, MOST TOXIC, MOST POWERFUL, more moneys in it than petral chemical industrys. What A stupid way to boil water to generate power, You could not find a more toxic way if you tryed for a hundred years.
They even have an office in the United Nations for rubber stamping new projects NRC. Best peoples in physics new from day one that this crap could not be contained. Every freakin Nuke plant in the world LEAKS DEADLY AMOUNTS, Anything for a buck! Say you want to hear more and you will have it.
Im a life member of the Alliance Of Atomic Veterans for over 30 years. Most of our group WW2 and Korea war era, Im veitnam era and some others in group from around the world later day, Nuke subs, weapenry, Experaments ect.
Most members from Bikini Atoll era, Korea, Test Site Mercury personal are dead now.
Our founder and director Anthon Guarisco died some years back, Since most members dead We closed shop. Athony WW2 and korea vet was ginny pig at Bikini Atoll test in south Pacific Ocean. He became sick minutes after exposed in those as test as most personal did. Later he developed tumors and other med conditions. Came home from Military service had a family chlidren, grand chidren, They developed life threating tumors also. Anthony said had he known at time what he was exposed to he would never had fatherd children. It became his life mission to expose the industrys coruption and lies as you could understand.( Anthony researh revailed the Smoking Gun!) All monitors for the Bikini Atoll test,Civialns and military
recorded data from those test. After everyone became sick days after test the head of operation said to Washington call of the rest of testing most personal are sick. Washinton replied continue, or be court marsheld. Days later Washington
cabeled back telling comander of the test to destroy all papers on monitor reporting. Many civilans science peoples on board navil vessels in test recieved orders to come home Imeditly, Naval Officers wacthed as the civies left like rats of a sinking ship. They new somthing no good was up! The Data that was suposed to be destroyed was copyed by head of safty monitor and hidden At UCLA archives, Anthony got the tip where those papers were copyed hundreds of thousands pages of data and destributed world wide. Those papers show the govt knew exactly what they were exposeing our men and women in service to. Today the govt pleads ignorance, Saying we did not know then what we know today about exsposers of radiaton. The monitor datas tell a differant story-from the horses mouth so to speak!
Why then wxpose our own knowingly? Because we had already exposed every animail under the sun to all levels and knew what would kill. Wha they didnot know was how the human mind could function under differant levels of radiation. So what the hell is 40 thousands naval personal? By the way most personal inthat test died average age forty. Eating our own as Anthony would say.

Want more Tai ask thankyou for cental valley info most people dont know or care.
I miss Anthony Very vey much
Peace RHB ps. Athony said this testing on Military,was it a single nugget or a vein? We found out its a vein that runs very deep killing our own



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2015 10:56AM by riverhousebill.

RHB wrote:
Want more Tai ask thankyou

Tai
Sure. I like to be informed.
I was reading about the mushrooms that you can plant on contaminated soil to uptake the heavy metals and radiation to clean the ground and blowing dust, like in places like in St. George. But then you need a place to dispose of the mushrooms.

I didnot know about the mushrooms, I know the hemp Marauwna absorbs very well.
faster growth than mushroom volume wise. planting to absorb is a way to mop up spread out radiation, then you can concentrate a little better. I know there is research going on in the US to find a way to deal with mankinks greatest threat.
so far no luck. I talked about the Bikini atoll test where, ... It involved between 80 and 100 target ships. after they were exposed to all levels of radation they came back to ports on the west coast to be decontaminated.
These ships were hot! you know the half life of this crap, First they sand blasted a 1/4 inch of metal off hotest ships, No change in level, another 1/4, no change again still reading deadly. One more try no luck again. Yncle sam said take them out and sink them cant clean them. Where Are They Now?
The Final Resting Places of the Vessels used in Operation Crossroads
CARRIERS

Independence (CVL-22): Towed to Pearl Harbor and then to Hunters Point (San Francisco) in October 1946. Sunk as target in special tests of new aerial and undersea weapons off San Francisco on January 27, 1951, in 1,000 fathoms.

Saratoga (CV-3): Sunk at Bikini by Baker shot on July 25, 1946.

BATTLESHIPS

Arkansas (BB-33): Sunk at Bikini by Baker shot on July 2S, 1946.

Nagato (Japanese): Sunk at Bikini by Baker shot on night of July 29/30, 1946.

Nevada (BB-36): Towed to Kwajalein by USS Preserver (ARS-8), decommissioned on August 29, 1946, and then towed to Pearl Harbor. Sunk as target on July 31, 1948, 65 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor following four days of gunfire, bomb, rocket, and torpedo hits from Task Force 12. As of 1993, the USS Preserver was still on active duty as a salvage ship, assigned to the Naval Reserve Training Facility at Little Creek outside Norfolk.

New York (BBI-34): Towed to Kwajalein by USS Achomawi (AFT-148), decommissioned on August 29, 1946, and then towed to Pearl Harbor. Sunk as target on July 8, 1948, 40 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor after an eight-hour pounding by ships and planes using bombs and gunfire in full-scale battle maneuvers with new torpedoes.

Pennsylvania (BB-38): Scuttled off Kwajalein on February 10, 1948.

CRUISERS

Pensacola (CA-23): Towed to Kwajalein and then to Bremerton, Washington, for radiological tests. Sunk as target off Washington coast on November 10, 1948, in 1,400 fathoms.

Prinz Eugen (German): Towed to Kwajalein and attempted to beach at Enubuj Island, but she capsized and sank in shallow water on December 22, 1946 (New York Times article indicates date was December 16).

Sakawa (Japanese): Sunk at Bikini by Able shot on July 2, 1946.

Salt Lake City (CA-25): Towed to Bremerton via Pearl Harbor for radiological tests. Sunk by torpedoes in 2,000 fathoms off San Diego on May 25, 1948, after a four-hour bombardment from planes and ships.

DESTROYERS

Anderson (DD-41 1): Sunk at Bikini by Able shot on July 1, 1946.

Conyngham (DD-371): Steamed from Kwajalein to Pearl Harbor in September 1946, and then to San Francisco area, arriving on October 22, 1946. Scuttled in July 1948 off California coast.

Hughes (DD-410): Beached at Eneu Island following Baker shot on July 26, 1946, and later towed to San Francisco for radiological tests. Sunk as target off Washington coast by air attack on October 16, 1948.

Lamson (DD-367): Sunk at Bikini by Able shot on July 1, 1946.

Mayrant (DD-402): Kept at Kwajalein for radiological tests until sunk there by guns and torpedoes on April 4, 1948.

Mugford (DD-389): Scuttled off Kwajalein on March 22,1948.

Mustin (DD-413): Sunk by gunfire off Kwajalein on April 18, 1948.

Ralph Talbot (DD-390): Scuttled off Kwajalein on March 8, 1948.

Rhind (DD-404): Scuttled off Kwajalein on March 22, 1948.

Stack (DD-406): Sunk by gunfire from four destroyers off Kwajalein on April 24, 1948.

Trippe (DD-403): Sunk as target off Kwa'alein on February 3, 1948.

Wainwright (DD-419): Sunk as target off Kwajalein on July S, 1948, by
Destroyer Division 172.

Wilson (DD-408): Scuttled off Kwa'alein on March 8, 1948.

SUBMARINES

Apogon (SS-308): Sunk at Bikini by Baker shot on July 25, 1946.

Dentuda (SS-335): Steamed from Kwajalein to Pearl Harbor in September 1946, and the next month to San Francisco for radiological study. Decommissioned at Mare Island on December 11, 1946, and stationed in the 12th Naval District for training of naval reservists. Sold for scrap on January 20, 1969.

Parche (SS-384): Steamed to Pearl Harbor and then reported to Mare Islands Group 19th Fleet on October 14, 1946. Towed to the naval reserve docks in Oakland in February 1948 and accepted as a naval reserve training ship. Sold for scrap in July 1970.

Pilotfish (SS-386): Sunk at Bikini by Baker shot on July 25, 1946. Salvaged for examination and resunk as a target on October 16, 1948. Searaven (SS-196): Raised from submerged position on July 29, 1946, after Baker shot. Steamed to Pearl Harbor from Kwajalein and then to San Francisco for radiological study, arriving there on October 22, 1946. Sunk as target off California coast on September 11, 1948.

Skate (SS-305): Towed to Kwajalein by ATR-40, then to Pearl Harbor by USS Fulton (AS-11), and then to San Francisco by USS

Clamp (ARS-33). Decommissioned on December 11, 1946, and scuttled off California coast in 515 fathoms on October 4, 1948.

Skipjack (SS-184): Sunk at Bikini by Baker shot on July 25, 1946. Salvaged on September 2, towed to Pearl Harbor, and then to San Francisco. Sunk by aircraft rocket attack on August 11, 1948, off California coast in 700 fathoms.

Tuna (SS-203): Surfaced after Baker shot on July 27, 1946. Steamed to Kwa'alein, Pearl Harbor, and then San Francisco. Scuttled off the West Coast on September 24, 1948, in 1,160 fathoms.

ATTACK TRANSPORTS

Banner (APA-60): Scuttled off Kwajalein on February 16, 1948.

Barrow (APA-61): Scuttled off Kwajalein on May 11, 1948.

Bladen (APA-63): Steamed to East Coast, decommissioned at Norfolk on December 26, 1946, and transferred to U.S. Maritime Commission on August 3, 1953.

Bracken (APA-64): Scuttled off Kwajalein on March 10, 1948.

Briscoe (APA-65): Scuttled somewhere in the Marshall Islands on May 6, 1948.

Brule (APA-66): Scuttled off Kwajalein on May 11, 1948.

Butte (APA-68): Scuttled off Kwajalein on May 12, 1948.

Carlisle (APA-69): Sunk at Bikini by Able shot on July 1, 1946.

Carteret (APA-70): Sunk in the Marshall Islands by gunfire of the USS
Toledo (CA-133) on April 19, 1948.

Catron (APA-71): Sunk in the Marshall Islands by gunfire of the USS
Atlanta (CL-104) on May 6, 1948.

Cortland (APA-75): Granted radiological clearance in December 1946,
decommissioned at Norfolk on December 30, 1946, and transferred to the U.S. Maritime Commission on March 31, 1948. Later sold for scrap.

Crittenden (APA-77): Towed to San Francisco in January 1947. Towed to sea by USS Tekesta (ATF-93) and sunk off California coast by explosive tests on October 5, 1948, in 800 fathoms.

Dawson (APA-79): Scuttled off Kwajalein on April 19, 1948, in 2,290 fathoms.

Fallon (APA-81): Beached on Eneu Island on July 27, 1946, after Baker shot and then towed to Kwajalein. Scuttled off Kwajalein on -March 10, 1948.

Fillmore (APA-83): Steamed to East Coast, decommissioned at Norfolk on January 24, 1947, and transferred to U.S. Maritime Commission on April 1, 1948.

Gasconade (APA-85): Towed to San Francisco and sunk as target by torpedoes off southern California coast on July 21, 1948, in 1,300 fathoms.

Geneva (APA-86): Steamed to East Coast, decommissioned at Norfolk on January 1, 1947, and received by the U.S. Maritime Commission at James River Reserve Fleet, Lee Hall, Virginia, on April 2, 1948. Transferred to Wilmington (North Carolina) Reserve Fleet in July 1955, and sold for scrap on November 2, 1966.

Gilliam (APA-57): Sunk at Bikini by Able shot on July 1, 1946.

Niagara (APA-87): Steamed to East Coast, arriving at Norfolk on November 23, 1946. After being used to test effects of special conventional explosives in the Chesapeake Bay in 1947-48, was sold for scrap on February 5, 1950, to Northern Metals Company of Philadelphia.

LSTs (LANDING SHIPS, TANK)

LST-S2: Sunk off Kwajalein in April 1948 by gunfire of USS Oakland (CL-95) in 2,280 fathoms.
LST-12S: Deliberately beached before Baker shot, then sunk by gunfire
of USS Fall River (CA- 1 3 1) off Bikini on August 14, 1946.
LST-133: Sunk off Kwajalein on May 11, 1948.
LST-220: Sunk off Kwajalein on May 12, 1948.
LST-545: Sunk off Kwajalein on May 12, 1948.
LST-661: Sunk off Kwajalein on July 25, 1948.

LSMs (LANDING SHIPS, MEDIUM)

LSM-60: Destroyed at Bikini as bomb carrier for Baker shot on July 25, 1946.

LCTs (LANDING CRAFT, TANK)

LCT-412: Scuttled off Kwajalein in September 1947.
LCT-414: Sunk by demolition charges at Bikini shortly after Baker shot.
LCT-705: Scuttled off Kwa'alein in September 1947.
LCT-746: Scuttled off Kwajalein in March 1947.
LCT-812: Sunk by demolition charges at Bikini shortly after Baker shot.
LCT-816: Scuttled off Kwajalein in June 1947.
LCT-818: Scuttled off Kwajalein in September 1947.
LCT-874: Scuttled off Kwajalein in September 1947.
LCT-1013: Scuttled off Kwajalein in September 1947.
LCT-1078: Scuttled off Kwajalein in September 1947.
LCT-1112: Scuttled off Kwajalein in September 1947.
LCT-1113: Scuttled off Kwajalein in June 1947.
L CT-1114: Capsized by Baker shot and sunk by demolition charges at
Bikini on July 30, 1946.
LCT-1175: Sunk at Bikini by Baker shot on July 2S, 1946.
LCT-1187. Sunk by demolition charges at Bikini shortly after Baker shot.
LCT-1237: Sunk by demolition charges at Bikini shortly after Baker shot.

AUXILIARIES

ARDC-13: Sunk at Bikini by Baker shot on August 6, 1946.
YO-1 60: Sunk at Bikini by Baker shot on July 25, 1946.
YOG-83: Beached at Kwajalein on September 23, 1946, and scuttled off
Kwajalein on September 16, 1948.

LCIs (LANDING CRAFT, INFANTRY)

LCI-327: Stranded at Bascombe (Mek) Island, Kwajalein, and destroyed there on October 30, 1947.
LCI-329: Scuttled off Kwajalein on March 16, 1948.
LCI-332: Scuttled off Kwajalein in September 1947.
LCI-549: Used at Kwajalein as patrol vessel until June 1948. Granted final radiological clearance in August 1948 and towed to Port Chicago, California, in January 1949. Sold to the Learner Company in Alameda, California, on August 2, 1949, and delivered on August 19, 1949.
LCI-618: Sold to the Learner Company in Alameda, California, on
August 2, 1949, and delivered on August 19, 1949.
LCI-620: Deliberately beached before Baker shot. Towed to sea and
sunk off entrance to Bikini lagoon on August 10, 1946.

LCMs (LANDING CRAFT, MECHANIZED)

LCM-1: Fate unknown.
LCM-2: Fate unknown.
LCM-3: Fate unknown.
LCM-4: Sunk at Bikini by Baker shot on July 25, 1946.
LCM-S: Fate unknown.
LCM-6: Sold for scrap in Guam on unknown date.

LCVPs (LANDING CRAFT VEHICLES, PERSONNEL)

LCVP-7: Fate unknown.
LCVP-8: Fate unknown.
LCVP-9: Fate unknown.
LCVP-1 0: Sunk at Bikini by Baker shot on July 25, 1946. LCVP-1 1: Fate unknown.
LCVP-12: Fate unknown.

SOURCES:
Capt. A. G. Nelson, memorandum entitled "Crossroads Target Ships,"
May 25, 1978, DOE/CIC 48703;

Operational Report on Atomic Bomb Tests Able and Baker; Mooney, ed.,

Dictionary of American Naval Figbting Sbips; Delgado et al.,

The Arcbeology of the Atomic Bomb, 173-76; Berkhouse et al.,

Operation Crossroads, 173-77; Shurcliff, Tecbnical Report, pp. 3.61-62; New York Times.

Operation Crossroads, The Atomic Tests at Bikini Atoll, pp. 317-322; Weisgall,

Tai, many of these ships were sandblasted in atempt to save at west coast ship yards.
That metal dust lies today on the bottom of San francisco Bay San Diago and Long Beach Harbor Ca, Just as hot now as then. thousands of ship yard workers were exposed and died from that. Bikini Atoll had a popultion that is not in the count like Central valley folks. many of these hot ships where sunk within 20 miles off our coast, For those still eating fish from our oceans I wish you health,

300,000 GIs Under the Mushroom Clouds

Killing and eating our young.


Dr. David Bradley sat among colleagues aboard a U.S. Navy ship docked just off the main island of the Bikini atolls in the midst of the Pacific Ocean, about two thousand miles southwest of Hawaii. Bradley, a young Army doctor, was one of a score of assembled physicians in training to be radiation monitors for the first peacetime atomic detonations.[1] He listened attentively as Colonel Stafford Warren, head of the Radiological Safety Section, explained the scenario set for seventeen days later, on July 1, 1946.
An atomic bomb--the same size as the weapon that exploded over Nagasaki--was scheduled to detonate at Bikini. In more ways than one the U.S. military high command and its civilian counterparts were testing the waters with this "Operation Crossroads"--the name given to the 1946 Bikini test series. There was very little question that the two plutonium bombs ready for detonation that July would work; the purpose of Operation Crossroads was to evaluate impacts of existing nuclear weapons rather than to experiment with any new designs.[2]

The psychological aspects of atomic detonations--among direct participants as well as the general public--were being carefully considered. It was no accident that journalists from around the world, photographers, and newsreel crews were solicitously encouraged to observe Operation Crossroads in all its breathtaking, awe-inspiring atomic glory. But the atomic test supervisors were able to meticulously control the stories those journalists turned in. All information about the blasts--including the quantity and significance of radioactive fallout affecting plants, animals, and humans--was most definitely the sole province of official sources.

To be stressed to the world in the summer of 1946 was the theme of fantastic power of nuclear weaponry, held only by the United States--a nation capable of controlling nuclear explosions to protect its own citizens and allies while inflicting enormous and selective damage on adversaries. The leadoff test, appropriately enough, was code-named Able.

The first lectures that Dr. Bradley and other scientists aboard the U.S.S. Haven heard were about keeping quiet. Sitting on the balmy navigation deck of the sleek white ship equipped with elaborate laboratory instrumentation, Bradley had listened to the initial briefing three days after the Haven left San Francisco. "The naval equivalent of a Trial Judge Advocate read us the riot act on security, backing it up with selections from the Federal Espionage Act. Before he got through it began to look as though Bikini would be but a brief stop on the way to Leavenworth," Bradley later recorded in his personal log.[3]

The tests were mounted with assiduous attention to detail. Along with forty-two thousand U.S. armed forces personnel, and an armada of about two hundred ships and 150 planes dispatched to both withstand the atomic damage and help in assessing it,[4] there were hundreds of military and civilian specialists. The government had assigned an entire ship, carrying animals and physicians, to study effects of radioactivity on the fish, plant life, and coral atolls, and its spread by air and sea.[5] Over four thousand nonhuman test animals[6] were to be involved in the Able atomic blast--including goats, pigs, rats, and specially bred mice--in addition to fruit flies.

As he concentrated on the final briefing from Colonel Stafford Warren, one of the American military's top radiation authorities, Bradley found himself both fascinated and concerned. To him, medicine was always destined to be practiced "somewhere in that intermediate zone which combines both science and humanism."[7] The scientist in Bradley was fascinated; the humanist in him was concerned.

Colonel Warren explained that a B-29 would fly over Bikini to drop an A-bomb. A mobile "live" fleet would be about twenty miles away, on the sea and in the air. The bomb would explode with a power of about twenty thousand tons of TNT, sending off blinding heat equal to the sun's.[8]

As the initial flash dissipated, two of the Navy's Marin PBM-S flying boats (Bradley was assigned to be in one of them) would cruise closer and closer to the blast until detecting radiation levels deemed "dangerous." While planes and destroyers would be sent off to follow the mushroom cloud's travel path, the "live" fleet would gradually head toward the blast center--where ships berthed under the nuclear explosion would be examined to find out what an atom bomb of twenty kilotons or so could do to aircraft carriers, battleships, and other military equipment.[9] U.S. commanders had designated seventy-three ships to serve as the atomic explosion's target fleet.[10]

Having heard the last briefing and received their assignments, Bradley and most of his scientific colleagues went ashore on Bikini's main island--four miles long and about two hundred yards wide--a sandy sliver in the Pacific immensity. "The sun was rich with its tropical intensity, and the sky full of the clustering thunderheads," Bradley wrote in his notebook. "The beauty of this Bikini setting seems to belong to another world entirely, having no relation to the strange mission which brings us here."[11]

Indeed, Bikini's beauty masked radioactive poisons that would prove fatal to natives and GIs alike.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. David Bradley, No Place to Hide (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1948), pp. 18-20.
2. Herbert York, The Advisors: Oppenheimer, Teller, and the Superbomb (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Co., 1976), p. 19.

3. Bradley, No Place to Hide, p. 5.

4. Michael Uhl and Tod Ensign, GI Guinea Pigs (Chicago: Playboy Press, 1980), p. 34

5. Bradley, No Place to Hide, p. 15.

6. Uhl and Ensign, GI Guinea Pigs, p. 34.

7. Bradley, No Place to Hide, p. 15.

8. Ibid., pp. 18, 19.

9. Ibid., p. 20.

10. Time, July 8, 1946, p. 20.
Tai this is still very tip of the story of our nuclear Leagacy, By he way in the 1980s Anthony got another good tip, The DOD Department Of Defence and the DOE Department Of Energy Hired hundres of GHOST WRITERS to sweeten up our bitter Nuclear history to hide facts they uncoverd. Unfortinate Anthonys health went to hell and most of what he knew of ghost writngs went with him.shortly after AAV. Alliance of Atomiv Veterans closed its doors, Anhony was the thrust and brains of most we knew.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2015 04:20AM by riverhousebill.

The worst and scaryist part of this to come, having trouble with computer printing it, will get it to you soon
RHB

RHB wrote

many of these hot ships where sunk within 20 miles off our coast, For those still eating fish from our oceans I wish you health,

Tai
and what do you think about eating seaweed, not from heavily contaminated waters, but in general?

I think its part of our makeup I think we crawled out of the sea back a bit in time if my memory serves me well.
Facts are in on seaweeds, its very good for you high in proteins, minerals.
Our oceans sadly have been a dumping ground for way to long.
Up till the 1970s every bit of trash from NYC was put on barges sent to sea and dumped. Everything that we dump or use on land ends up in the sea.
Western Shoshnie Indians and others say ONE Water One earth One air
Here in Vietnam on the south China see it makes me sick to see how much plastic is on the beaches,
SeaWeed Super-Antioxidant
Advanced Bionutritionals
Boost Circulation, Memory, & Sleep! 100x More Potent than Blueberries
Essential Nutrients
Like other vegetables, seaweed contains essential minerals and vitamins you need to get in a healthy, balanced diet. According to the site Best Health, only a gram of seaweed provides your daily dose of iodine, a mineral that is critical for healthy thyroid function. Additionally, a type of brown seaweed called kombu contains the pigment fucoxanthin, which may help your body metabolize fats for energy. Best Health also reports that a serving of seaweed is loaded with more calcium than broccoli and is almost as rich in proteins as legumes. Other nutrients in seaweed include vitamin B-12 and vitamin A.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2015 10:35AM by riverhousebill.

Tai, this scenario acording to best science math says, Its not a matter of if. Its a matter of when with 17 thousand Thermal Nukes world wide. mathamatics say its a matter of time. The Alliance Of Atomic Veterans go with the math.
Mad Commander on base, sub, computer hacker terrorist, Mechincal Falure, unless
The Nuclear proliferation Treaty is more than cellofane words this will be our end.
Problem with proliferation treaty, No time table was ever included for nations to start to dismantle. The Proliferation treaty would have never passed without our founder and diretor Anthony! He was the one who showed our congress of cowards and senate of snakes this had to be Eward Kennedy
said so in a letter to our group I have. We have always been a warring klan and with war you have death and you always have some survivors, But with a nuclear war the power of these monsters it will also be the death of death full tilt and the earth will be a burned out walnut. This scares me the most of anyhing on the planet, not so much for myself, but my grand children and all future generations.

False Alarms in the Nuclear Age
By Dr. Geoffrey Forden
Posted 11.06.01
NOVA
Since the late 1970s, Russian and American missileers have each come close twice to launching nuclear missiles in response to a perceived attack under way from the other side. Here, MIT's Geoffrey Forden supplies the details of those harrowing events.

Beyond the Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban missile crisis is the best-known example of narrowly avoiding nuclear war. However, there are at least four other less well-known incidents in which the superpowers geared up for nuclear annihilation. Those incidents differed from the Cuban missile crisis in a significant way: They occurred when either the U.S. or Soviet or Russian leaders had to respond to false alarms from nuclear warning systems that malfunctioned or misinterpreted benign events.


In the past quarter century, Russia and the U.S. each have come close twice to launching nuclear missiles like this Russian ICBM to counter a perceived attack. Enlarge
Photo credit: © WGBH Educational Foundation


All four incidents were very brief, probably lasting less than 10 minutes each. Professional military officers managed most of them. Those officers had to decide whether or not to recommend launching a "retaliatory" strike before possibly losing their own nuclear first strikes. In three of the four incidents, the decision not to respond to the alarm was made when space-based early-warning sensors failed to show signs of massive nuclear attacks. The fourth incident was caused by an inadequate early-warning satellite system that was fooled into thinking that reflected sunlight was the flames from a handful of ICBMs.

Russia was poised, for a few moments at least, to launch a full-scale nuclear attack on the United States.As the following brief history of those four incidents makes clear, space-based early-warning systems played a major role in avoiding nuclear war. During the 1980s, a few specialized articles in the media hinted at the presence of those systems. However, it was only during the Gulf War that the American public truly became aware of U.S. capability to detect missile launches using space-based assets. During that crisis, U.S. Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites, first orbited in 1970, detected the launch of every Iraqi Scud missile. The satellites made the detections from their orbits by "seeing" the infrared light that the missiles' motors gave off during powered flight. The warning of launches was transmitted to Patriot air defense missile batteries in Israel and Saudi Arabia to support attempts to shoot down the incoming warheads.

The association with the fighting of conventional war has obscured the more important strategic role those systems have played: reassuring leaders of the United States and Russia that they were not under nuclear attack. A review of the four nuclear crises will better highlight that role.

The training tape incident
Shortly before 9 a.m. on November 9, 1979, the computers at North American Aerospace Defense Command's Cheyenne Mountain site, the Pentagon's National Military Command Center, and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland, all showed what the United States feared most—a massive Soviet nuclear strike aimed at destroying the U.S. command system and nuclear forces. A threat assessment conference, involving senior officers at all three command posts, was convened immediately. Launch control centers for Minuteman missiles, buried deep below the prairie grass in the American West, received preliminary warning that the United States was under a massive nuclear attack.


Minuteman missiles similar to this one, shown in a test firing from Cape Kennedy, Florida, could deliver a nuclear payload as far as 8,000 miles away. Enlarge
Photo credit: AP Photo/Jim Kerlin


The alert did not stop with the U.S. ICBM force. The entire continental air defense interceptor force was put on alert, and at least 10 fighters took off. Furthermore, the National Emergency Airborne Command Post, the president's "doomsday plane," was also launched, but without the president on board. It was later determined that a realistic training tape had been inadvertently inserted into the computer running the nation's early-warning programs.

However, within minutes of the original alert, the officers had reviewed the raw data from the DSP satellites and checked with the early-warning radars ringing the country. The radars were capable of spotting missiles launched from submarines close to the U.S. shores and ICBM warheads that had traveled far enough along their trajectories to rise above the curvature of the Earth. The DSP satellites were capable of detecting the launches of Soviet missiles almost anywhere on the Earth's surface. Neither system showed any signs that the country was under attack, so the alert was canceled.


In the "training tape" incident, Defense Support Program early-warning satellites saved the day. Pictured is a DSP satellite going aloft in April 2003. Enlarge
Photo credit: Courtesy Lockheed Martin


The computer chip incident
On June 3, 1980, less than a year after the incident involving the training tape, U.S. command posts received another warning that the Soviet Union had launched a nuclear strike. As in the earlier episode, launch crews for Minuteman missiles were given preliminary launch warnings, and bomber crews manned their aircraft. This time, however, the displays did not present a recognizable or even a consistent attack pattern as they had during the training tape episode. Instead, the displays showed a seemingly random number of attacking missiles. The displays would show that two missiles had been launched, then zero missiles, and then 200 missiles. Furthermore, the numbers of attacking missiles displayed in the different command posts did not always agree.

Although many officers did not take this event as seriously as the incident of the previous November, the threat assessment conference still convened to evaluate the possibility that the attack was real. Again the committee reviewed the raw data from the early-warning systems and found that no missiles had been launched. Later investigations showed that a single computer chip failure had caused random numbers of attacking missiles to be displayed.

The autumn equinox incident
On September 26, 1983, the newly inaugurated Soviet early-warning satellite system caused a nuclear false alarm. Like the United States, the Soviet Union realized the importance of monitoring the actual launch of ICBMs. However, the Soviets chose a different method of spotting missile launches. Instead of looking down on the entire Earth's surface the way U.S. DSP satellites do, Soviet satellites looked at the edge of the Earth—thus reducing the chance that naturally occurring phenomena would look like missile launches. Missiles, when they had risen five or ten miles, would appear silhouetted against the black background of space. Furthermore, when the edge of the Earth is viewed, light reflected from clouds or snow banks has to pass through a considerable amount of the atmosphere. That view reduces the chances that clouds and snow may cause false alarms.

A satellite has to be in a unique position to view a recently launched missile silhouetted against the black of space. To get that view, the Soviet Union picked a special type of orbit that it had used for its communications satellites. Those orbits, known as Molnyia orbits, come very close to the Earth in the Southern Hemisphere but extend nearly a tenth of the distance to the moon as the satellite passes over the Northern Hemisphere. From that position high above northern Europe, the Soviet Union's Oko ("Eye" early-warning satellites spend a large fraction of their time viewing the continental U.S. missile fields at just the right glancing angle. However, shortly after midnight Moscow time on September 26, 1983, the sun, the satellite, and U.S. missile fields all lined up in such a way as to maximize the sunlight reflected from high-altitude clouds.


A Russian Oko early-warning satellite's hypothesized view of U.S. missile fields at the time of the so-called "autumn equinox" incident Enlarge
Photo credit: Geoffrey Forden, MIT


Whether that effect was a totally unexpected phenomenon is hard to know. That may have been the first time this rare alignment had occurred since the system became operational the previous year. Press interviews with Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov, the officer in charge of Serpukhov-15, the secret bunker from which the Soviet Union monitored its early-warning satellites, indicated that the new system reported the launch of several missiles from the U.S. continental missile fields. Petrov had been told repeatedly that the United States would launch a massive nuclear strike designed to overwhelm Soviet forces in a single strike.

Why did that false alarm fail to trigger a nuclear war? Perhaps the Russian command did not want to start a war on the basis of data from a new and unique system. On the other hand, if the sun glint had caused the system to report hundreds of missile launches, then the Soviet Union might have mistakenly launched its missiles. Petrov said that he refused to pass the alert to his superiors because "when people start a war, they don't start it with only five missiles. You can do little damage with just five missiles."

The Norwegian rocket incident
Early on the morning of January 25, 1995, Norwegian scientists and their American colleagues launched the largest sounding rocket ever from Andoya Island off the coast of Norway. [Sounding rockets collect data on atmospheric conditions from various altitudes.] Designed to study the northern lights, the rocket followed a trajectory to nearly 930 miles altitude but away from the Russian Federation. To Russian radar technicians, the flight appeared similar to one that a U.S. Trident missile would take to blind Russian radars by detonating a nuclear warhead high in the atmosphere.


The trajectory of the Black Brant XII sounding rocket, which triggered the "Norwegian rocket" incident Enlarge
Photo credit: Geoffrey Forden, MIT


That scientific rocket caused a dangerous moment in the nuclear age. Russia was poised, for a few moments at least, to launch a full-scale nuclear attack on the United States. In fact, President Boris Yeltsin stated the next day that he had activated his "nuclear football"—a device that allows the Russian president to communicate with his top military advisers and review the situation online—for the first time.

However, we can be fairly confident that Yeltsin's football showed that Russia was not under attack and that the Russian early-warning system was functioning perfectly. In addition to the string of radars surrounding the border of the former Soviet Union, Russia had inherited a complete fleet of early-warning satellites that, even by 1995, still maintained continuous 24-hour coverage of the U.S. continental missile fields. In the early 1990s Russia had still managed to launch replacement satellites for its early-warning system as the previous ones died out—thereby retaining continuous coverage. Because of those satellites, Yeltsin's display must have shown that no massive attack was lurking just below the horizon.

Towards reliable early warning
The danger posed by those incidents was not the unauthorized or accidental launch of a handful of nuclear-tipped missiles but the possibility that either country might misinterpret a benign event—a computer training tape mistakenly inserted into an operational computer or sunlight glinting off clouds during a rare lineup of the sun, Earth, and satellite—and decide to launch a full-scale nuclear attack.

Each incident caused officials to take steps to solve a specific problem. After the training tape incident, the U.S. Department of Defense constructed a separate facility to train operators so that a training tape could not again be inserted into the computer running the nation's early-warning system. Apparently, the Soviet Union launched a new fleet of early-warning satellites into geostationary orbit simply to provide a second angle from which to view U.S. missile fields. That expensive and redundant system ensured that at least one satellite could search for missile launches free from sun glint.

Despite measures taken to prevent them, such accidents are inevitable.After three of the four incidents, the U.S. government maintained that steps were taken that would prevent any future false alarms. However, it had to wait only seven months after the first incident (the computer tape incident) to see that complex organizations, relying on even more complex machinery, can find new and unexpected ways to fail. In fact, a comprehensive study of nuclear accidents has shown convincing historical evidence that, despite measures taken to prevent them, such accidents are inevitable.

The most recent example of solving the "last problem" was the Clinton administration's initiative to share early-warning data with Russia. The jointly manned center has been presented by the American side as a solution to the decline of Russia's early-warning facilities. Russians familiar with the negotiations, however, maintain that the center has no military significance. That view is underscored by the choice of the site for the center: an old schoolhouse nearly an hour away from downtown Moscow. In fact, U.S. Department of Defense officials familiar with the Joint Data Exchange Center (JDEC) admit that, even if the center had been active during the Norwegian rocket incident, its only effect would have been to facilitate the launch notification issued before the NASA launch.

Any assistance the United States provides must increase Russia's confidence in the validity of its own early-warning systems. The JDEC fails that test. Russia would never believe that the United States would pass along launch indications if a U.S. nuclear attack had been launched.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2015 11:07AM by riverhousebill.

Tai outa site outa mind-
I use wrong words often, Inform is realy my goal not scare. Im blind in one eye cant see out of other, and old and in the way. More of our nuclear leagacy, also thanks for everyone putting up with my misspell but you get the drift anyway ha ha.


8 Nuclear Weapons the U.S. Has Lost
.
During the Cold War the United States military misplaced at least eight nuclear weapons permanently. These are the stories of what the Department of Defense calls "broken arrows"—America's stray nukes, with a combined explosive force 2,200 times the Hiroshima bomb.

STRAY #1: Into the Pacific
February 13, 1950. An American B-36 bomber en route from Alaska to Texas during a training exercise lost power in three engines and began losing altitude. To lighten the aircraft the crew jettisoned its cargo, a 30-kiloton Mark 4 (Fat Man) nuclear bomb, into the Pacific Ocean. The conventional explosives detonated on impact, producing a flash and a shockwave. The bomb's uranium components were lost and never recovered. According to the USAF, the plutonium core wasn't present.

STRAY #2 & 3: Into Thin Air
March 10, 1956. A B-47 carrying two nuclear weapon cores from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to an overseas airbase disappeared during a scheduled air-to-air refueling over the Mediterranean Sea. After becoming lost in a thick cloud bank at 14,500 feet, the plane was never heard from again and its wreckage, including the nuclear cores, was never found. Although the weapon type remains undisclosed, Mark 15 thermonuclear bombs (commonly carried by B-47s) would have had a combined yield of 3.4 megatons.

STRAYS #4 & 5: Somewhere in a North Carolina Swamp
January 24, 1961. A B-52 carrying two 24-megaton nuclear bombs crashed while taking off from an airbase in Goldsboro, North Carolina. One of the weapons sank in swampy farmland, and its uranium core was never found despite intensive search efforts to a depth of 50 feet. To ensure no one else could recover the weapon, the USAF bought a permanent easement requiring government permission to dig on the land.

STRAY #6: The Incident in Japan
December 5, 1965. An A-4E Skyhawk attack aircraft carrying a 1-megaton thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb) rolled off the deck of the U.S.S. Ticonderoga and fell into the Pacific Ocean. The plane and weapon sank in 16,000 feet of water and were never found. 15 years later the U.S. Navy finally admitted that the accident had taken place, claiming it happened 500 miles from land the in relative safety of the high seas. This turned out to be not true; it actually happened about 80 miles off Japan's Ryuku island chain, as the aircraft carrier was sailing to Yokosuka, Japan after a bombing mission over Vietnam.

These revelations caused a political uproar in Japan, which prohibits the United States from bringing nuclear weapons into its territory.

STRAYS #7 & 8: 250 kilotons of explosive power
Spring, 1968. While returning to home base in Norfolk, Virginia, the U.S.S. Scorpion, a nuclear attack submarine, mysteriously sank about 400 miles to the southwest of the Azores islands. In addition to the tragic loss of all 99 crewmembers, the Scorpion was carrying two unspecified nuclear weapons—either anti-submarine missiles or torpedoes that were tipped with nuclear warheads. These could yield up to 250 kilotons explosive power (depending which kind of weapon was used).

NOTE: WHAT ABOUT TYBEE?
The United States lost a warhead off of Tybee Island, Georgia, in 1958. According to the U.S. Air Force, it did not contain a plutonium core and therefore could not be considered a functional nuclear weapon, though that has been debated. Whether you believe the U.S. Air Force on this matter is a personal call.

More from mental_floss... 11 Hidden Messages in Company Logos. 27 Actors Who Got Their Starts on Miami Vice. It's Complicated: 5 Puzzling International Borders. How Many Languages is it Possible to Know?.

Anyone who grew up on the eastern seaboard of the United States owes their life to this second n comand onboard Submarine B-59. Im sorry I cant rember his name.


Durring Bay Of Pigs a flotilla commander and second-in-command of the nuclear-armed submarine B-59, refused to launch a Russian duty officer … wish i could find his name was given order to launch. He rufused saying we must have orders from Mosco. Everyone one eastern coast would be dead now if he obayed orders from capt! this was close as it comes.
JFK was fuged up pain meds and ready to go for it, He was on methanphatimes at time for his pain, Read Dr Feelgood. might be Cia knew he was loseng it and had to be taken out of command. Same drug mix Uncle Adolf was on basicly Meth Kennedys docor told him he had to stop meds kennedy said I dont care if its horse piss it relevies my pain.
New Yorker Hotel incident with JFK showed he was over edge.
We came too dam close that time to nuclear holloucst.
More later. this coast me 20thousand dong an hour here to use computer.
Its a race here nucleardiaster or to be informed disaster has nose lead



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2015 11:39AM by riverhousebill.

Zippy would say ARE WE SAFE YET????

13 February 1950: While flying a simulated combat mission from Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska to Carswell AFB in Texas, a B-36 Peacemaker bomber experienced engine problems. The aircraft was carrying a single Mk 4 atomic bomb containing depleted uranium, but the plutonium core required for a fission reaction had been removed. Ice buildup on the carburetors forced the pilot to shut down three engines and reduced the power output of the remaining three. As weather conditions continued to worsen, the crew decided to abandon the aircraft. The unarmed bomb was jettisoned over the Pacific Ocean and its conventional explosives either detonated in mid-air or upon impact with the water. The plane then turned over a nearby island where the crew bailed out. Twelve were rescued from the frigid conditions but five were never found. The B-36 apparently continued on autopilot for a considerable distance before crashing in northern British Columbia. The wreck was later located and studied to confirm that no nuclear material remained aboard.

11 April 1950: All thirteen crewmembers aboard an American B-29 Superfortress were killed when their plane crashed near Kirtland AFB in New Mexico shortly after takeoff. The bomber had been carrying an atomic bomb with its nuclear core stored separately and four spare detonators. The impact of the crash and a massive fire destroyed the outer casing of the bomb, and its high explosives detonated when exposed to burning fuel. Since the weapon was partially disassembled for safety, there was no chance of an atomic explosion. All nuclear components were recovered from the accident scene intact and no radiation leak was detected.

13 July 1950: A B-50 Superfortress from Biggs AFB in Texas was on a training flight when the bomber pitched nose down and crashed near Lebanon, Ohio. All sixteen crew were killed. The conventional high explosives of an onboard atomic weapon detonated on impact, but the plane carried no nuclear capsule.

5 August 1950: A US Air Force B-29 carrying an unarmed atomic bomb with no fissile core was taking off from Fairfield-Suisun AFB in California when the bomber experienced several malfunctions. While attempting an emergency landing, the plane crashed and burst into flames. The fire set off the bomb's high explosives killing 19 crewmembers and rescue personnel. Among the fatalities was Brigadier General Robert Travis, and the base was later renamed in his honor.

10 November 1950: A B-50 Superfortress was ferrying a Mk 4 atomic weapon from Canada to a base in the United States when it suffered engine trouble. Fearing they could not make an emergency landing while carrying the heavy weapon, the crew jettisoned the bomb over the St. Lawrence River off the shore of Quebec. The weapon was set to self-destruct and detonated in mid-air. A plutonium core was not installed but the explosion scattered some 100 lb (45 kg) of depleted uranium across the river below.

10 March 1956: A B-47 Stratojet of the US Air Force disappeared while carrying the cores of two nuclear weapons in special transport cases. The aircraft was on a non-stop flight eastward from MacDill Air Force Base in Florida to an overseas base. Two in-flight refuelings were scheduled along the way. While the first was completed successfully, the B-47 never reached the second tanker over the Mediterranean Sea. The plane presumably went down somewhere over the Mediterranean but no trace of the plane, its crew, or its nuclear payload was ever found despite an extensive search.



B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber
27 June 1956: An accident occurred at the NATO air base at Lakenheath, England, when an American B-47 bomber skidded off the runway and crashed into a storage igloo. The facility contained three Mk 6 atomic bombs but no nuclear cores. The weapons were quickly engulfed in flames by burning jet fuel from the B-47, but firefighters were able to extinguish the conflagration quickly. A bomb disposal expert on the scene concluded it was, "...a miracle that one Mark six with exposed detonators sheared didn't go."

22 May 1957: An Air Force B-36 bomber was ferrying a Mk 17 bomb weighing 42,000 lb (19,050 kg) from Biggs AFB in Texas to Kirtland AFB in New Mexico. During the landing approach, the bomb broke loose and tore part of the bomb bay doors off the plane as it fell. Although a retarding parachute deployed, it had little effect because of the plane's low altitude. The bomb's conventional explosives detonated as it impacted in a cow pasture in Albuquerque just south of the base. The blast completely destroyed the bomb leaving a large crater 12 ft (3.6 m) deep and 25 ft (7.6 m) across. Debris was scattered over a wide area with some pieces found nearly a mile away. The weapon's nuclear capsule was aboard the plane but was carried separately eliminating the possibility of a nuclear detonation. Low levels of radioactivity were detected but were contained completely within the impact crater.

28 July 1957: A C-124 Globemaster II cargo plane of the US Air Force left Dover AFB in Delaware transporting three nuclear weapons and one fissile core stored separately. Shortly into the flight, the plane lost power to two engines. The crew determined the plane could not maintain flight with the weight of the cargo and decided to jettison two of the weapons overboard. The weapons sank off the coast of New Jersey and were never located. The C-124 was able to make an emergency landing near Atlantic City with the remaining weapon and nuclear capsule.

11 October 1957: A B-47 had just taken off from Homestead AFB in Florida when one of its outrigger tires exploded. The plane crashed and fire engulfed an atomic weapon and its nuclear core stored in a separate case. The fire smoldered for about four hours during which two low order detonations of the conventional explosives were observed. Much of the weapon had been destroyed but the nuclear capsule was recovered intact with no radiation released.

31 January 1958: The first accident involving a fully operational armed nuclear weapon occurred at a base in Morocco. A B-47 was conducting a simulated takeoff when one of its landing gear wheels failed and the plane's tail struck the ground. The impact ruptured one of the bomber's fuel tanks causing a fire. The onboard bomb was damaged but did not detonate after lying in a smoldering fire for seven hours. Some radioactive contamination was detected in the immediate vicinity but was cleaned.

5 February 1958: An Air Force B-47 Stratojet from Homestead AFB was on a simulated combat mission when the plane collided with an F-86 Sabre near Savannah, Georgia. The B-47 was carrying one Mk 15 hydrogen bomb without its core at the time of the accident. The plane made three unsuccessful landing attempts at Hunter Air Force Base before the weapon was jettisoned over the Atlantic Ocean to avoid the risk of a high explosive detonation at the base. The bomb was dropped several miles from the mouth of the Savannah River in Wassaw Sound off Tybee Island. Though an intensive nine-week search was launched using divers and sonar equipment, the weapon was never found. Another unsuccessful search was mounted in 2001, and reports of radiation detected less than a mile from shore led to speculation of the bomb's discovery in 2004. Further investigation concluded the radioactivity was naturally occurring and the weapon remains missing.



Mk 15 hydrogen bomb
11 March 1958: A B-47E carrying an unarmed atomic weapon without a fissile core departed Savannah, Georgia, on a routine training flight. While flying over Florence, South Carolina, the bomb lock failed and the warhead fell onto a house in the suburban neighborhood below. The impact set off the conventional explosives causing several injuries on the ground.

4 November 1958: While taking off from Dyess AFB in Texas, a B-47 bomber of the US Air Force caught fire. The three crew ejected, although one was killed, and the plane crashed while carrying one atomic weapon. The conventional explosives were set off by the crash creating a large crater, but all nuclear components were recovered.

26 November 1958: A B-47 Stratojet caught fire while on the ground at Chennault AFB in Louisiana. The conflagration destroyed an onboard weapon releasing some radioactive contamination in the immediate vicinity of the wreckage.

18 January 1959: An American F-100 Super Sabre was on the ground conducting a practice alert at a base in the Pacific. The aircraft was carrying three external fuel tanks and a nuclear weapon without a nuclear capsule. As the starter button was depressed, the external fuel tanks were accidentally jettisoned causing an explosion. The fire was put out quickly and no contamination was detected.

6 July 1959: While taking off from Barksdale AFB in Louisiana, a C-124 transport carrying one nuclear weapon crashed. The resulting fire destroyed the weapon but safety devices prevented any nuclear or conventional explosions. A small amount of radioactive contamination was found directly beneath the weapon.

25 September 1959: A P-5M Marlin patrol aircraft of the US Navy was conducting a mission off Whidbey Island, Washington, while carrying one unarmed nuclear depth charge without its fissile core. The aircraft crashed into Puget Sound and the weapon was never recovered.

12 October 1959: An American B-52 Stratofortress had rendezvoused with a KC-135 Stratotanker near Hardinsberg, Kentucky. As the B-52 was being refueled, the two planes collided. Five of the bomber's nine crew and all four aboard the tanker were killed. The B-52 also carried two unarmed nuclear weapons that were recovered intact with little or no damage.



B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber
7 June 1960: A BOMARC air defense missile in storage at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey was destroyed after a high-pressure helium tank burst. The blast ruptured the missile's fuel tanks and ignited a large fire. Although the warhead was also destroyed, its high explosives did not detonate and contamination was limited to a small area.

24 January 1961: An Air Force B-52 was carrying two 20-megaton Mk 39 hydrogen bombs while on airborne alert over North Carolina. While flying at an altitude of 10,000 ft (3,050 m), leaking fuel in the right wing caused a mid-air explosion and a major structural failure. The wreckage fell to Earth near Goldsboro killing three of eight crew, and the two weapons came free of the plane as it broke apart. One of the bombs deployed its parachute and landed with minimal damage. The second, however, struck the ground and broke apart spreading its components over a wide area. Reports suggest the weapon nearly detonated since five of its six safety devices failed and only a single switch prevented a catastrophe. The Air Force launched a massive search of the area and recovered the bomb's plutonium, but most of the thermonuclear stage including highly enriched uranium was never found. To prevent its accidental discovery at a later date, the service purchased and fenced off the property and monitors it regularly for radiation. The accident prompted the US to develop improved safeguards to prevent accidental nuclear detonations, and the Soviet Union was encouraged to do likewise.

14 March 1961: A failure of the pressurization system aboard a B-52 and lack of fuel forced the crew to abandon the bomber near Yuba City, California. Two nuclear weapons aboard the plane were torn loose when it struck the ground, but safeguards worked properly and prevented any detonation. No radioactive contamination was released.

4 June 1962: The United States attempted its first high-altitude atmospheric nuclear test by placing a nuclear device atop a Thor rocket. The rocket was launched from Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean but the tracking system failed during flight and the rocket had to be destroyed. The rocket's nuclear payload is believed to have vaporized before reaching the ocean.

20 June 1962: A second attempt to detonate a nuclear weapon at high altitudes also failed when the Thor booster rocket shut down prematurely a minute after launch. The vehicle had to be destroyed at an altitude of about 35,000 ft (10,670 m) above Johnston Atoll. The nuclear device being tested also fell into the Pacific Ocean and was not recovered, but pieces of debris contaminated by plutonium were found around the island.



Launch of a Thor booster rocket
10 April 1963: The USS Thresher (SSN-593) was an American nuclear-powered attack submarine. While on a test to its maximum diving depth, an accident occurred that caused the vessel to sink in the Atlantic Ocean about 220 miles (355 km) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The leading theory is a pipe in the engine room ruptured under the great pressure at its depth causing the nuclear reactor to shut down. Without power, the Thresher had no ability to surface and continued diving until the increasing water pressure crushed the hull. It is not believed the submarine was carrying any nuclear weapons at the time of its sinking but the Thresher did take its reactor and 129 men to the ocean floor 8,400 ft (2,560 m) deep. Later investigation of the wreckage indicated the Thresher had been violently torn apart as it sank but the reactor compartment remained intact. The accident led to a major program to improve the quality of welding in submarine hulls that has been successful to this day.

13 November 1963: The US Atomic Energy Commission operated a facility in Medina, Texas, where obsolete nuclear weapons were disassembled. An explosion in a storage igloo at the site involved 123,000 lb (55,800 kg) of high explosive components causing minor injuries to three employees. Low levels of radioactive contamination from nuclear components stored in another part of the structure was detected.

13 January 1964: A B-52D bomber enroute from Massachusetts to Georgia crashed near Cumberland, Maryland, due to strong turbulence and structural failure. Only two of the five crewmembers survived. The plane was carrying two nuclear weapons in a ferry configuration, and these were recovered with minor damage.

21 April 1964: The United States had launched a Transit-5BN-3 nuclear-powered navigational satellite that failed to reach orbit and burned up over the Indian Ocean. The satellite's nuclear reactor partially burned during re-entry releasing small amounts of plutonium into the stratosphere. The remainder of the reactor fell into the ocean.



Maintaining a Minuteman missile in its silo
5 December 1964: During maintenance operations at a Minuteman I nuclear missile silo in South Dakota, a retrorocket below the Re-entry Vehicle (RV) fired and caused the RV to fall about 75 ft (20 m) to the silo floor. The RV's arming and fusing system was torn loose removing power, and safety devices prevented any possibility of detonation. Although the RV was damaged considerably by the fall, no radioactive contamination escaped.

8 December 1964: A B-58 Hustler bomber was taxiing into position for takeoff at what became Grissom AFB in Indiana when it slid off the runway and caught fire. The three crew ejected but one perished due to a hard impact of his escape capsule. Five nuclear weapons were aboard the plane and several were damaged in the fire. Contamination was released but confined to the immediate vicinity of the wreckage.

11 October 1965: Minor contamination occurred when a C-124 transport caught fire as it was being fueled at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. The plane was carrying nuclear weapon components but no complete weapons. The contamination was removed by normal cleaning.

5 December 1965: The US Navy aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga was returning from a Vietnam deployment to the naval base at Yokusuka, Japan. While cruising about 70 miles (110 km) from the Ryukyu Islands, an A-4E Skyhawk attack plane rolled over the side of the ship with its pilot aboard. The plane was carrying one B-43 thermonuclear bomb at the time. The plane, its pilot, and the bomb sank in water 16,000 ft (4,875 m) deep and could not be recovered. Because of the great pressure at that depth, some have expressed concern that the weapon might have imploded spreading radioactive material, but there is no evidence this occurred.



B-43 nuclear bomb
17 January 1966: One of the most embarrassing accidents in the history of nuclear weapons occurred when a B-52 Stratofortress carrying four B-28 thermonuclear bombs suffered a mid-air collision with a KC-135 tanker. The B-52 was on airborne alert and conducting a routine air refueling while returning to Seymour Johnson AFB in North Carolina. The bomber was attempting its third refueling over the village of Palomares, Spain, when the nozzle of the tanker's boom struck the plane. The boom ripped open the B-52 causing it to break into pieces while the KC-135's payload of jet fuel exploded, destroying the aircraft and killing its crew of seven. The debris of the two planes scattered over 100 square miles (260 sq km). One of the bomber's four weapons came down on land with minor damage while a second was lost in the ocean. This Broken Arrow was later recovered intact after one of the largest search and recovery operations ever mounted. The three month search required 33 ships and over 3,000 Navy personnel before the weapon was recovered. While these two weapons suffered little damage, the high explosive casing of the other two bombs detonated upon impacting land spreading low levels of radioactive contamination over Palomares and the surrounding countryside. Under pressure from the local inhabitants, the US collected and transported 1,400 tons of contaminated soil and vegetation from Spain to the United States for storage.

Late 1966 or Early 1967: Although the exact date and details remain a mystery, the Soviet icebreaker Lenin suffered a nuclear reactor accident that killed several crew. The vessel had to be abandoned for over a year until radiation levels dropped low enough for repairs to be made. The ship's three reactors were removed and dumped into the Kara Sea. Two new reactors were installed and the ship re-entered service in 1970.

21 January 1968: An American B-52 from Plattsburgh AFB in New York was on airborne alert in the Arctic Circle when a fire broke out in the navigator's compartment. As the plane approached Thule AFB in Greenland to attempt an emergency landing, it crashed about 7 miles (11 km) southwest of the runway while carrying four nuclear bombs. The B-52 burst into flames as it impacted causing the high explosive casing on at least one of the weapons to detonate. The blast spread radioactive plutonium from the bomb's inner core about 1,000 ft (305 m) to either side of the wreck. Due to the intensity of the fire, two of the four bombs fell through the melting ice and sank to the ocean floor. One of these Broken Arrows was not recovered until 1979, and the second weapon remains lost on the floor of Baffin Bay.

11 April 1968: The Soviet Golf II class diesel-powered ballistic missile submarine K-129 sank over 16,000 ft (4,875 m) deep in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles northwest of Hawaii. The entire crew of 98 was lost and the vessel sank with three ballistic nuclear missiles plus two nuclear torpedoes. The reason for the sinking is unknown, but evidence suggests an explosion in the battery compartment or a missile tube. In one of the most amazing tales of the Cold War, America's Central Intelligence Agency launched "Project Azorian" to recover the vessel and its nuclear weapons from the deep seabed. The CIA secretly funded the construction of a massive ship called the Glomar Explorer that was ostensibly built for undersea mining. In reality, the vessel carried an enormous crane designed to grapple the Soviet submarine and lift it to the surface for study. It is unknown how successful the effort was, but the US has admitted to recovering at least a portion of K-129.



Glomar Explorer while in service with the CIA
18 May 1968: An American attempt to launch the spacecraft Nimbus B-1 failed when the booster rocket had to be destroyed at an altitude of 18.5 miles (30 km). The satellite carried two radioisotope generators that fell into the ocean off the California coast. The nuclear material was recovered intact from a depth of 330 ft (100 m) with no release of radioactivity.

21 May 1968: The attack submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589) was returning to the United States following a three month deployment when the vessel sank in the Atlantic Ocean about 500 miles (805 km) southwest of the Azores. While details of the sinking remain a mystery, one theory is a battery within one of the submarine's torpedoes overheated and ignited. The subsequent fire caused a warhead detonatation and blasted open the torpedo loading hatch at the top of the forward compartment. A flood of water through this hatch sent the Scorpion over 10,000 ft (3,050 m) deep to the ocean floor. The vessel broke into two major sections as it sank with the forward hull containing the torpedo room and control spaces located some distance from the aft hull containing the reactor. The Scorpion was lost with its entire crew of 99, one nuclear reactor, and two nuclear-tipped torpedoes. The US Navy continues to monitor the wreck for signs of disturbance and environmental impact but no release of radioactive material has been detected to date.

24 May 1968: Soviet submarine K-27 was conducting sea trials when the reactor overheated and began spreading radiation through the vessel. The entire submarine was scuttled in the Kara Sea in 1981 with its reactor still aboard.

12 April 1970: The Soviet November class nuclear-powered attack submarine K-8 sank in the Bay of Biscay about 300 miles (480 km) northwest of Spain. The vessel suffered a fire that broke out in two aft compartments. The captain's order to abandon ship was countermanded and the submarine sank in heavy seas, taking the lives of 52 members of its crew. K-8 was powered by two nuclear reactors and possibly carried multiple nuclear torpedoes. Rumors suggest that shortly before the sinking, K-8 laid tactical atomic torpedoes in the Bay of Naples for use as mines against the US fleet in case of war. The vessel was carrying 24 of these torpedoes and only four were found inside the sunken wreck. It is unknown whether the remainder still lie on the ocean floor near Italy or if the Soviets recovered them at a later date. Nevertheless, this tale is based largely on information from an Italian investigator named Mario Scaramella whose credibility has since become suspect. K-8 had also suffered an earlier reactor accident in 1960 that contaminated the vessel and injured several crewmen.

17 April 1970: As Apollo 13 returned to Earth following its aborted mission to the Moon, the crew jettisoned a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) that would have been left on the lunar surface had the landing been successful. The RTG, containing plutonium, survived re-entry and came to rest in the Tonga Trench at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean where it still remains.

8 September 1977: The Soviet submarine K-171, a Delta I class ballistic missile boat, accidentally jettisoned one of its missiles overboard into the Pacific Ocean near Kamchatka. Pressure had been building up in the missile launch tube causing the missile and its nuclear warhead to be ejected. Though initially classified as a Broken Arrow, the warhead was later located and recovered following an intense search.

1978: A Soviet barge named Nikel was transporting low and medium level radioactive waste products when it sank during a storm sometime in 1978. The vessel was lost approximately 20 miles northwest of Kolguyev Island in the Barents Sea and no recovery attempts were made.

24 January 1978: The Soviet ocean reconnaissance satellite Kosmos 954 fell into the atmosphere and burned up over Canada. The satellite was powered by a nuclear reactor, but the majority was apparently destroyed in re-entry. Only small radioactive pieces were recovered.



Titan II missile silo
19 September 1980: While conducting routine maintenance on a Titan II ballistic missile at a silo in Arkansas, a repairman dropped a heavy wrench that punctured a pressurized fuel tank. The fuel vapor later ignited killing one and injuring 21 more US Air Force personnel. The blast also threw the missile's re-entry vehicle out of the silo, but it was recovered intact with no leak of radiation.

7 February 1983: A Soviet nuclear-powered reconnaissance satellite called Kosmos 1402 re-entered the atmosphere and burned up over the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is unknown whether the reactor survived intact, but the remains fell into the ocean about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) east of Brazil.

24 June 1983: The Soviet submarine K-429, a Charlie-class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine, sank in Savannaya Bay in the Bering Sea killing at least 16 of its 120 crew. The vessel has been ordered to conduct a submerged torpedo launch even though still undergoing maintenance. In the haste to put to sea, ventilation systems had not been properly sealed and ballast tank valves were left misaligned. As the submarine submerged in shallow waters for a test dive, the open ventilation system led to massive flooding in forward compartments. The captain attempted to resurface the vessel but was foiled by the faults in the ballast tank system. K-429 settled to the shallow seabed about 130 ft (40 m) down. Luckily, most of the crew was still alive and the vessel was equipped with escape capsules to reach the surface. Two crewmen volunteered to ascend into the frigid Arctic waters and swim ashore to summon help. Despite being arrested upon reaching the coast, the men were able to bring word of the sinking to naval commanders so a rescue attempt could be launched. With ships waiting above, the remainder of the crew used the escape capsules to ascend to the surface. The vessel was salvaged the following August recovering its single reactor and any nuclear weapons aboard. Though later returned to service, the vessel sank again at its moorings in September 1985 killing additional crewmen. K-429 was raised once more and finally retired.

6 October 1986: The Soviet Yankee I class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine K-219 was on patrol off the Atlantic coast of the US when a missile tube began leaking. The incoming water mixed with liquid rocket propellants that had dripped from the missile to create toxic gases. The buildup of gases resulted in an explosion. Four crewmen perished while fighting the fires and the rest were forced to evacuate because of the toxic fumes. As the submarine was being towed back to port, it sank 680 miles (1,095 km) north of Bermuda taking two nuclear reactors and 16 nuclear missiles to the bottom. Each missile carried two warheads each and it is believed the submarine also held two nuclear torpedoes for a total of 34 nuclear warheads.



K-219 on the surface missing a missile hatch cover following the explosion
20 August 1987: The Soviet Union lost a radioisotope thermoelectric generator into the Sea of Okhotsk following an "emergency disposal." The RTG was never located.

7 April 1989: K-278 Komsomolets was a Soviet Mike class nuclear-powered attack submarine. K-278 was submerged and returning to base when a fire broke out in the aft compartment. The fire spread forward along wires causing electrical short circuits that shut down the reactor. As the vessel began to lose buoyancy, the order was given to surface and abandon ship. Unfortunately, K-278 sank off the northern coast of Norway killing 42 of the 69 crewmembers. The submarine carried one nuclear reactor and two torpedoes with nuclear warheads. Later exploration of the wreck revealed large cracks running the length of the hull, major blowout damage to the forward torpedo compartment, and possible damage to the reactor. As radiation levels in the area began to rise and fearing further contamination in these rich fishing waters, Russia made several attempts to hermetically seal K-278 in a jelly-like material. The effort was declared successful in 1996, and monitoring of the wreck since has measured no significant radiation leaks. Nevertheless, the seal is expected to degrade by 2025.

16 November 1996: Mars 96 was a Russian probe launched to study the planet Mars. Following an unsuccessful burn of a booster rocket stage, the spacecraft fell back into Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. The remains of the vehicle, containing 18 radioisotope thermoelectric generators, landed off the coast of Chile.

8 August 1997: While flying over the Sea of Okhotsk off the coast of Sakhalin Island, a Russian helicopter was forced to jettison a radioisotope thermoelectric generator it had been transporting. The RTG was not located despite a search.

12 August 2000: The Russian submarine K-141 Kursk, a nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine of the Oscar II class, was participating in military exercises in the Barents Sea north of Russia when a massive explosion rocked the vessel. The blast ruptured the hull sending the Kursk into a terminal dive towards the sea floor 350 ft (105 m) down. Though 23 of the 118 crewmembers survived the initial sinking, attempts to rescue them failed. The men perished from lack of oxygen and the vessel had completely flooded by the time divers were able to enter the wreck. Subsequent investigations concluded the sinking was caused by a torpedo room fire similar to the one that may have doomed USS Scorpion in 1968. A torpedo's propellants ignited creating a large fire that soon caused the warheads of other torpedoes to detonate. The massive explosion ripped open the forward part of the submarine and quickly flooded the forward compartments. Russia indicated that no nuclear weapons were aboard, and the nuclear reactors were recovered in 2001 when the wreck was raised.

30 August 2003: K-159 was an aging Russian November class submarine retired in 1989. The vessel had already suffered a radiation accident in 1965 that was never adequately repaired, and the submarine remained laid up with virtually no maintenance for fourteen years. The hull was in such poor condition that pontoons were welded on to keep K-159 afloat, but these too were in a poor state and had been made in the 1940s. During the 1990s, foreign nations joined together and donated funds to have 16 abandoned Russian submarines towed to a shipyard for disposal. As K-159 was being moved, the submarine encountered a storm that tore the pontoons off. The boat eventually sank in 780 ft (240 m) of water with the loss of nine crew. The sunken vessel still carries two nuclear reactors and 1,800 lb (800 kg) of spent fuel. No radiation leakage has been detected so far, and plans to raise the wreck appear to have been postponed indefinitely.



Wreckage of the Kursk after the submarine was raised
While the accidents described above are among the most serious ever experienced, many others not included here have also resulted in reactor accidents, loss of life, or the spread of radioactive materials.
Tai here is one loss of the coast of Atlantic City I cant find info on right now that has a chance of blowing govt afraid of this one thet say leave it be best dont try to recover. will try and get more on that one. And the beat goes on and on and on our nuclear leagacy!!!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2015 12:43PM by riverhousebill.

RHB wrote
Im blind in one eye cant see out of other, and old and in the way. More of our nuclear leagacy, also thanks for everyone putting up with my misspell but you get the drift anyway ha ha.

Tai
You are not in the way at all. The older generation must teach the younger generation and the younger generation must listen and learn and act on it.

Also, sometimes the younger generation is there to help the elders, too. There is more microscopic power than the poisonous radiation. Good will always be stronger than evil. Help is closer than one thinks.

Also, sometimes the younger generation is there to help the elders, too. There is more microscopic power than the poisonous radiation. Good will always be stronger than evil. Help is closer than one thinks.

Micro power is with us otherwise we would have perished long ago
Those words ring so very true to me, Its what keeps my head and heart up.
If we stay open we all have somthing to share of great value
The peoples united can never be defeated by the strongest evils and ignorance.
Peace RHB