evildave
Unregistered
E
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/09/13/lost.bomb/index.html
So, how many 'broken arrow' accidents and lost nuclear submarines are there?
How much 'recovered' nuclear 'material' might there be that wasn't really? How much 'irrecoverable' material might there be that isn't now, or won't be?
A lot of development of deep sea SONAR and recovery techniques has been made over the years from private outfits 'treasure hunting' for fun and profit. This may be less expensive than trying to purify and enrich atomic fuels for yourself.
An intact nuke, or the 'physics package' from one would be worth a LOT more than the equivalent gold. All you need is money and crazy people, and the world is full of crazy people. On the plus side, with any luck, the sites are being monitored against the possibility of material being recovered.
A few incidents where 'material' was definitely not recovered (or 'dumped' in water)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_accidents
The whole (lengthy) article these occasional exerpts came from is so scary and horrible that it's funny. On the bright side, it reveals that no terrorist 'dirty bomb' could do much worse than we in the US have already done to ourselves.
Note: Similar incidents have certainly happened, and will happen with every nuclear nation, especially the 'emerging' ones. Especially the hijinks with poorly selected 'dumping sites'.
March 10, 1956 – Somewhere en route to a rendezvous with an Air Force tanker flying over the Mediterranean Sea, a B-47 from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida disappeared without a trace. The plane was carrying two nuclear capsules at the time of the incident.
February 5, 1958 – A damaged B-47 off the coast of the US state of Georgia, flying near Tybee Island, jettisons a weapon lacking its nuclear core from 7200 feet after attempting to land three times at Hunter Air Force Base. The plane had suffered a collision with an F-86 during simulated combat near Savannah, Georgia, and could not land safely with the heavy bomb on board. The bomb is never recovered.
January 24, 1961 – A B-52 bomber suffered a fire caused by a major leak in a wing fuel cell and exploded in mid-air 12 miles (20 km) north of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Goldsboro, North Carolina. The incident released the bomber's two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs. Five crewmen parachuted to safety, but three died - two in the aircraft and one on landing. Three of the four arming devices on one of the bombs activated causing it to carry out many of the steps needed to arm itself, such as the charging of the firing capacitors and critically the deployment of a 100-foot diameter retardation parachute. The parachute allowed the bomb to hit the ground with little damage. The fourth arming device — the pilot's safe/arm switch — was not activated and so the weapon did not detonate. The other bomb plunged into a muddy field at around 700 miles per hour and disintegrated. Its tail was discovered about 20 feet down and much of the bomb recovered including the tritium bottle and the plutonium. However excavation was abandoned because of uncontrollable flooding by ground water and the most of the thermonuclear stage, containing uranium, was left in situ. It was estimated to lie at around 180 feet. The Air Force purchased the land and fenced it off to prevent its disturbance and it is tested regularly for contamination, although none has so far been found. See: [Broken Arrow: Goldsboro, NC http://www.ibiblio.org/bomb/].
April 10, 1963 – The nuclear submarine USS Thresher (SSN-593) sinks east of Boston, Massachusetts with 129 men onboard during sea trials. A year earlier, just before the end of its refit interval, the boat had been abused in a munitions test where it literally tried to approach explosions as closely as possible. The boat was refitted afterward, and sank on its sea trials. In a show of poor planning, the sea trial was conducted where the bottom was below the hull's crush depth. In the yard, destructive tests of a few silver-soldered pipe connections had failed. At the time, nondestructive testing was unknown, and no test records were available. The investigators believed that the sinking was caused by the failure of a major through-hull silver-soldered connection, such as a secondary-loop cooling inlet, and that the reactor and its design were not responsible. The reactor was not recovered.
# December 5, 1965 – An A-4E Skyhawk airplane with one B43 nuclear weapon onboard falls off the USS Ticonderoga into 16,200 feet (4.9 km) of water off the coast of Japan. The ship was traveling from Vietnam to Yokosuka, Japan. The plane, pilot, and weapon are never recovered. There is dispute over exactly where the incident took place—the US Defense Department originally stated it took place 500 miles (800 km) off the coast of Japan, but US Navy documents later show it happened about 80 miles (130 km) from the Ryukyu Islands and 200 miles (320 km) from Okinawa. [28]
Winter 1966-1967 (date unknown) – The USSR's first nuclear-powered ship, the icebreaker Lenin suffers a major accident (possibly a meltdown) in one of its three reactors. It was rumoured that around 30 of the crew were killed. The ship was abandoned for a year to allow radiation levels to drop before the three reactors were removed, to be dumped into the Tsivolko Fjord on the Kara Sea along with 60% of the fuel elements packed in a separate container. The reactors were replaced with two new ones and she re-entered service in 1970.
April 1967 – A drought dries up Lake Karachay near Chelyabinsk, Russia. From 1951 onwards the swampy 0.5 square kilometre lake was used as a dump for medium and high level nuclear waste from Chelyabinsk-40, part of the Mayak facility. Whirlwinds spread around 5 MCi of of contaminated lake sediment over approximately 1,800 square kilometres.
January 22, 1968 – 7 miles (11 km) south of Thule Air Force Base, Greenland, a fire breaks out in the navigator's compartment of a B-52 which crashes, scattering three hydrogen bombs on land and dropping one into the sea. During a cleanup complicated by Greenland's harsh weather, contaminated ice and airplane debris are buried in the U.S. Bomb fragments were recycled by Pantex, in Amarillo, Texas. Danes were outraged by the event because Greenland is a Danish possession, and Denmark forbids nuclear weapons on its territory. Denmark had massive demonstrations against the U.S. One warhead was recovered by Navy Seals and Seabees (U.S. naval engineers) in 1979. An August 2000 report suggests that the other bomb remains at the bottom of Baffin Bay.
April 11, 1968 – A Soviet Golf-class submarine sinks in about 16,000 ft (4900 m) of water, approximately 750 miles (1200 km) northwest of Hawaii's Oahu island. 80 sailors are killed in the incident. Several nuclear torpedoes and three nuclear ballistic missiles were onboard. (Parts of this vessel were later raised by the CIA and Howard Hughes' Glomar Explorer in 1974.) [29]
May 21, 1968 – The USS Scorpion (SSN-589), a nuclear-powered attack submarine carrying two Mark 45 ASTOR torpedoes with nuclear warheads, is lost with 99 sailors onboard. The nuclear material has not been recovered. The submarine has been photographed at the ocean bottom, and the U.S. Navy periodically monitors the location for radioactivity. Supposedly there has been no plutonium leakage to date.
April 12, 1970 – A Soviet November-class attack submarine apparently experiences problems with its nuclear propulsion system while in the Atlantic Ocean. The crew attempts to hook a tow line to a Soviet bloc merchant marine vessel, but fails. The ship sinks, killing 52. [32]
October 3, 1986 – 480 miles (770 km) east of Bermuda, a Soviet Yankee I-class submarine experienced an explosion in one of its nuclear missile tubes and at least three crew members were killed. Thirty-four nuclear missiles and two reactors were on board. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev privately communicated news of the disaster to U.S. President Ronald Reagan before publicly acknowledging the incident on October 4. Two days later, on October 6, the ship sank in the Atlantic Ocean while under tow in 18,000 feet (5.5 km) of water. [42]
April 7, 1989 – The Soviet Komsomolets attack submarine catches fire about 300 miles (480 km) off the coast of Norway. 27 crew members escape, but the remaining 42 do not survive as the ship sinks. Two nuclear-armed torpedoes were on-board along with the vessel's nuclear reactor. [44]
So, how many 'broken arrow' accidents and lost nuclear submarines are there?
How much 'recovered' nuclear 'material' might there be that wasn't really? How much 'irrecoverable' material might there be that isn't now, or won't be?
A lot of development of deep sea SONAR and recovery techniques has been made over the years from private outfits 'treasure hunting' for fun and profit. This may be less expensive than trying to purify and enrich atomic fuels for yourself.
An intact nuke, or the 'physics package' from one would be worth a LOT more than the equivalent gold. All you need is money and crazy people, and the world is full of crazy people. On the plus side, with any luck, the sites are being monitored against the possibility of material being recovered.
A few incidents where 'material' was definitely not recovered (or 'dumped' in water)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_accidents
The whole (lengthy) article these occasional exerpts came from is so scary and horrible that it's funny. On the bright side, it reveals that no terrorist 'dirty bomb' could do much worse than we in the US have already done to ourselves.
Note: Similar incidents have certainly happened, and will happen with every nuclear nation, especially the 'emerging' ones. Especially the hijinks with poorly selected 'dumping sites'.
March 10, 1956 – Somewhere en route to a rendezvous with an Air Force tanker flying over the Mediterranean Sea, a B-47 from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida disappeared without a trace. The plane was carrying two nuclear capsules at the time of the incident.
February 5, 1958 – A damaged B-47 off the coast of the US state of Georgia, flying near Tybee Island, jettisons a weapon lacking its nuclear core from 7200 feet after attempting to land three times at Hunter Air Force Base. The plane had suffered a collision with an F-86 during simulated combat near Savannah, Georgia, and could not land safely with the heavy bomb on board. The bomb is never recovered.
January 24, 1961 – A B-52 bomber suffered a fire caused by a major leak in a wing fuel cell and exploded in mid-air 12 miles (20 km) north of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Goldsboro, North Carolina. The incident released the bomber's two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs. Five crewmen parachuted to safety, but three died - two in the aircraft and one on landing. Three of the four arming devices on one of the bombs activated causing it to carry out many of the steps needed to arm itself, such as the charging of the firing capacitors and critically the deployment of a 100-foot diameter retardation parachute. The parachute allowed the bomb to hit the ground with little damage. The fourth arming device — the pilot's safe/arm switch — was not activated and so the weapon did not detonate. The other bomb plunged into a muddy field at around 700 miles per hour and disintegrated. Its tail was discovered about 20 feet down and much of the bomb recovered including the tritium bottle and the plutonium. However excavation was abandoned because of uncontrollable flooding by ground water and the most of the thermonuclear stage, containing uranium, was left in situ. It was estimated to lie at around 180 feet. The Air Force purchased the land and fenced it off to prevent its disturbance and it is tested regularly for contamination, although none has so far been found. See: [Broken Arrow: Goldsboro, NC http://www.ibiblio.org/bomb/].
April 10, 1963 – The nuclear submarine USS Thresher (SSN-593) sinks east of Boston, Massachusetts with 129 men onboard during sea trials. A year earlier, just before the end of its refit interval, the boat had been abused in a munitions test where it literally tried to approach explosions as closely as possible. The boat was refitted afterward, and sank on its sea trials. In a show of poor planning, the sea trial was conducted where the bottom was below the hull's crush depth. In the yard, destructive tests of a few silver-soldered pipe connections had failed. At the time, nondestructive testing was unknown, and no test records were available. The investigators believed that the sinking was caused by the failure of a major through-hull silver-soldered connection, such as a secondary-loop cooling inlet, and that the reactor and its design were not responsible. The reactor was not recovered.
# December 5, 1965 – An A-4E Skyhawk airplane with one B43 nuclear weapon onboard falls off the USS Ticonderoga into 16,200 feet (4.9 km) of water off the coast of Japan. The ship was traveling from Vietnam to Yokosuka, Japan. The plane, pilot, and weapon are never recovered. There is dispute over exactly where the incident took place—the US Defense Department originally stated it took place 500 miles (800 km) off the coast of Japan, but US Navy documents later show it happened about 80 miles (130 km) from the Ryukyu Islands and 200 miles (320 km) from Okinawa. [28]
Winter 1966-1967 (date unknown) – The USSR's first nuclear-powered ship, the icebreaker Lenin suffers a major accident (possibly a meltdown) in one of its three reactors. It was rumoured that around 30 of the crew were killed. The ship was abandoned for a year to allow radiation levels to drop before the three reactors were removed, to be dumped into the Tsivolko Fjord on the Kara Sea along with 60% of the fuel elements packed in a separate container. The reactors were replaced with two new ones and she re-entered service in 1970.
April 1967 – A drought dries up Lake Karachay near Chelyabinsk, Russia. From 1951 onwards the swampy 0.5 square kilometre lake was used as a dump for medium and high level nuclear waste from Chelyabinsk-40, part of the Mayak facility. Whirlwinds spread around 5 MCi of of contaminated lake sediment over approximately 1,800 square kilometres.
January 22, 1968 – 7 miles (11 km) south of Thule Air Force Base, Greenland, a fire breaks out in the navigator's compartment of a B-52 which crashes, scattering three hydrogen bombs on land and dropping one into the sea. During a cleanup complicated by Greenland's harsh weather, contaminated ice and airplane debris are buried in the U.S. Bomb fragments were recycled by Pantex, in Amarillo, Texas. Danes were outraged by the event because Greenland is a Danish possession, and Denmark forbids nuclear weapons on its territory. Denmark had massive demonstrations against the U.S. One warhead was recovered by Navy Seals and Seabees (U.S. naval engineers) in 1979. An August 2000 report suggests that the other bomb remains at the bottom of Baffin Bay.
April 11, 1968 – A Soviet Golf-class submarine sinks in about 16,000 ft (4900 m) of water, approximately 750 miles (1200 km) northwest of Hawaii's Oahu island. 80 sailors are killed in the incident. Several nuclear torpedoes and three nuclear ballistic missiles were onboard. (Parts of this vessel were later raised by the CIA and Howard Hughes' Glomar Explorer in 1974.) [29]
May 21, 1968 – The USS Scorpion (SSN-589), a nuclear-powered attack submarine carrying two Mark 45 ASTOR torpedoes with nuclear warheads, is lost with 99 sailors onboard. The nuclear material has not been recovered. The submarine has been photographed at the ocean bottom, and the U.S. Navy periodically monitors the location for radioactivity. Supposedly there has been no plutonium leakage to date.
April 12, 1970 – A Soviet November-class attack submarine apparently experiences problems with its nuclear propulsion system while in the Atlantic Ocean. The crew attempts to hook a tow line to a Soviet bloc merchant marine vessel, but fails. The ship sinks, killing 52. [32]
October 3, 1986 – 480 miles (770 km) east of Bermuda, a Soviet Yankee I-class submarine experienced an explosion in one of its nuclear missile tubes and at least three crew members were killed. Thirty-four nuclear missiles and two reactors were on board. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev privately communicated news of the disaster to U.S. President Ronald Reagan before publicly acknowledging the incident on October 4. Two days later, on October 6, the ship sank in the Atlantic Ocean while under tow in 18,000 feet (5.5 km) of water. [42]
April 7, 1989 – The Soviet Komsomolets attack submarine catches fire about 300 miles (480 km) off the coast of Norway. 27 crew members escape, but the remaining 42 do not survive as the ship sinks. Two nuclear-armed torpedoes were on-board along with the vessel's nuclear reactor. [44]