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So wait, we almost dropped a nuclear bomb on North Carolina in 1961??
09.23.2013
11:12 am
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Dr. Strangelove
 
You might be fan of Eric Schlosser from his stellar reporting in Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness. If you are, you have another reason to be proud of him—in his new book Command and Control, Schlosser has uncovered a remarkable story about a nuclear annihilation the United States almost inflicted on itself.

That’s right: on January 23, 1961, two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs were accidentally dropped over Goldsboro, North Carolina. The bombs were released after a B-52 bomber broke up in mid-air, and one of the nuclear weapons did exactly what it was supposed to do in a wartime situation: its parachute opened and its trigger mechanisms engaged. In a newly declassified report, a senior engineer familiar with the details of the case stated that “one simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe.”
 
Eric Schlosser, Command and Control
 
Each bomb carried a payload of 4 megatons – the equivalent of 4 million tons of TNT explosive. Each bomb was 260 times as powerful as the bomb detonated over Hiroshima in 1945. Had the device been triggered, the lethal fallout might well have spread over Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, even New York City – it’s difficult to calculate the number of people that might have been killed, but it could well have numbered into the millions.

Writing eight years after the events, engineer Parker F. Jones named his secret report “Goldsboro Revisited or: How I learned to Mistrust the H-Bomb,” a cute reference to Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classic black comedy about an accidental nuclear holocaust, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

According to The Guardian (UK), which was the first to report the story on Saturday,

The accident happened when a B-52 bomber got into trouble, having embarked from Seymour Johnson Air Force base in Goldsboro for a routine flight along the East Coast. As it went into a tailspin, the hydrogen bombs it was carrying became separated. One fell into a field near Faro, North Carolina, its parachute draped in the branches of a tree; the other plummeted into a meadow off Big Daddy’s Road.

Jones found that of the four safety mechanisms in the Faro bomb, designed to prevent unintended detonation, three failed to operate properly. When the bomb hit the ground, a firing signal was sent to the nuclear core of the device, and it was only that final, highly vulnerable switch that averted calamity. “The MK 39 Mod 2 bomb did not possess adequate safety for the airborne alert role in the B-52,” Jones concludes.

-snip-

Using freedom of information, he discovered that at least 700 “significant” accidents and incidents involving 1,250 nuclear weapons were recorded between 1950 and 1968 alone.

Well, that’s sobering news. As a little reminder of what almost happened in Goldsboro, North Carolina, here’s the last couple of minutes of Dr. Strangelove:
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Nuclear Explosions Since 1945
Nuclear Bomb slow-motion simulation

Posted by Martin Schneider
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09.23.2013
11:12 am
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