6 ms·

Interesting story. There's also one missing off the coast of GA: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18587608 https://www.npr.org/templates/

Interesting story. There's also one missing off the coast of GA: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18587608 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=185876... "On Feb. 5, 1958, a B-47 bomber dropped a 7,000-pound nuclear bomb into the waters off Tybee Island, Ga., after it collided with another Air Force jet. Fifty years later, the bomb -- which has unknown quantities of radioactive material -- has never been found."

noja 6y ago
"unknown quantities" - sure!!
foobarian 6y ago
Another scary event off the coast of Spain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Palomares_B-52_crash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Palomares_B-52_crash Two of the four bombs exploded due to conventional fuses detonating, spreading radioactive material over land.
- MaanuAir 6y ago
  And case not closed still today.
tyingq 6y ago
Makes me curious if the radioactive material eventually gets exposed by corrosion or erosion.
- laumars 6y ago
  I couldn’t explode. You’d need the detonator to do that. However the radioactive content could still pollute if the shielding were to corrode away.
  - Aerroon 6y ago
    The main ways it would be harmful is if you touched it or ate fish that touched it. The corrosion would probably just spread it out in the ocean and it'll soon become unnoticeable. After all, the radioactive materials mostly exist in nature anyway.
yabones 6y ago
There's also the Damascus incident, where a Titan II missile silo exploded during a fuelling accident and sent a 9 megaton thermonuclear warhead out of the silo and several hundred meters away. They don't officially say whether or not the core was inside the weapon, or if it was armed at the time... Either way, it's terrifying. Humans don't deserve these weapons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_ex...
- erdos4d 6y ago
  Humans don't deserve these weapons. > You sure? Nuclear weapons are guaranteed to bite you eventually, being stupid enough to have them sorta implies you deserve your eventual reward.
  - contravariant 6y ago
    We're going to need a lot worse if we're ever planning to deflect/mine asteroids. Sometimes there are good reasons to invent abusable techonology. And well, of all the ways the millennia old weapons race could have ended, it could have been worse.
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      If we're going to colonize the Solar System, nuclear weapons are going to feel like child's play. Any propulsion system capable of interplanetary travel in reasonable time frames (weeks to months) is also a weapon of mass destruction, just due to energies involved.
      - contravariant 6y ago
        Colonizing the Solar system is slightly more attainable than mining asteroids, but yeah the energies involved are pretty massive.
      - just_steve_h 6y ago
        You going to blow up your enemies with a solar sail?
1MachineElf 6y ago
Dimitri Khalezov says the Kursk was loaded with P-700 Granit mini-nukes when it sank during 2000: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster

noja 6y ago

"unknown quantities" - sure!!

foobarian 6y ago

Another scary event off the coast of Spain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Palomares_B-52_crash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1966_Palomares_B-52_crash Two of the four bombs exploded due to conventional fuses detonating, spreading radioactive material over land.

MaanuAir 6y ago
And case not closed still today.

tyingq 6y ago

Makes me curious if the radioactive material eventually gets exposed by corrosion or erosion.

laumars 6y ago
I couldn’t explode. You’d need the detonator to do that. However the radioactive content could still pollute if the shielding were to corrode away.
- Aerroon 6y ago
  The main ways it would be harmful is if you touched it or ate fish that touched it. The corrosion would probably just spread it out in the ocean and it'll soon become unnoticeable. After all, the radioactive materials mostly exist in nature anyway.

yabones 6y ago

There's also the Damascus incident, where a Titan II missile silo exploded during a fuelling accident and sent a 9 megaton thermonuclear warhead out of the silo and several hundred meters away. They don't officially say whether or not the core was inside the weapon, or if it was armed at the time... Either way, it's terrifying. Humans don't deserve these weapons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_ex...

erdos4d 6y ago
Humans don't deserve these weapons. > You sure? Nuclear weapons are guaranteed to bite you eventually, being stupid enough to have them sorta implies you deserve your eventual reward.
- contravariant 6y ago
  We're going to need a lot worse if we're ever planning to deflect/mine asteroids. Sometimes there are good reasons to invent abusable techonology. And well, of all the ways the millennia old weapons race could have ended, it could have been worse.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    If we're going to colonize the Solar System, nuclear weapons are going to feel like child's play. Any propulsion system capable of interplanetary travel in reasonable time frames (weeks to months) is also a weapon of mass destruction, just due to energies involved.
    - contravariant 6y ago
      Colonizing the Solar system is slightly more attainable than mining asteroids, but yeah the energies involved are pretty massive.
    - just_steve_h 6y ago
      You going to blow up your enemies with a solar sail?

1MachineElf 6y ago

Dimitri Khalezov says the Kursk was loaded with P-700 Granit mini-nukes when it sank during 2000: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kursk_submarine_disaster