* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: The 1966 Palomares B-52 crash

Blobrana · L

Palomares bombs: Spain waits for US to finish nuclear clean-up

So almost everyone has forgotten about Palomares. Except the people of Palomares. That's because the US clean-up operation missed some areas of contamination. Jose Maria Herrera is a local journalist who's been investigating the accident since the 1980s. He stood recently on a ridge overlooking one of three fenced-off areas which is still contaminated, totalling some 100 acres (40 hectares).

"That crater there is where one of the bombs fell. You could extract at least half a pound of plutonium from the soil there today."

Actually, just how much plutonium is still out there is hard to determine, because the US has never said how much the bombs were carrying to begin with. But Spanish investigator Carlos Sancho estimates that between 15 and 25 pounds (7 and 11kg) of the material ended up in the soil.

Blobrana · L

1966 Palomares B-52 crash

Blobrana · L

The 1966 Palomares B-52 crash or Palomares incident occurred on January 17, 1966, when a B-52G bomber of the USAF Strategic Air Command collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refuelling at 9,450 m over the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain.
Of the four Mk28 type hydrogen bombs the B-52G carried, three were found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares in the municipality of Cuevas del Almanzora, Almería, Spain. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impacting the ground, resulting in the contamination of a 2-square-kilometer area by radioactive plutonium.
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Latitude: 37°14'57"N, Longitude: 1°47'49"W

Blobrana · L

On 17 March 1966, a manned deep-ocean research submersible Alvin (DSV-2) owned by the United States Navy was used to locate a submerged 1.45-megaton hydrogen bomb lost in a United States Air Force midair accident over Palomares, Spain. The bomb, found resting nearly 910 meters deep, was raised intact on 7 April.
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Blobrana · L

The 1966 Palomares B-52 crash or Palomares incident occurred on January 17, 1966, when a B-52G bomber of the USAF Strategic Air Command collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refuelling at 9,450 m over the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain.
Of the four Mk28 type hydrogen bombs the B-52G carried, three were found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares in the municipality of Cuevas del Almanzora, Almería, Spain. The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impacting the ground, resulting in the contamination of a 2-square-kilometer area by radioactive plutonium.

Read more