Lost Nukes

[Ranger353]

So I have been watching videos on YouTube lately about lost nuclear bombs from the 1950's and 1960's. Seems that many of those classified documents are now coming up for public release and I'm a little surprised at the number of nuclear weapons that were lost at sea and never recovered. It is kinda scary that some of those items are considered ticking time bombs because eventually the sea water will erode the casing material away and expose the plutonium core to the sea.

I wonder why there hasn't been a more consolidated effort to find and recover so many devices, especially given the environmental impact of such a potential disaster?

[Chad4000]

holy fuck.. as if we didnt have enough to worry about ranger!!!!! lol jk

[ruthabagah]

No worries it's safe... That's what the gvt told the sailor after castle bravo in Bikini....Or when they told people it was ok to picnic and camp in the desert near st George Utah, after the Harry test in the 60'.... No worries, the GVT knows better.[Sarcasm2]

[TFOGGER]

Giles Prentice (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001844/?ref_=tt_trv_qu): A Broken what?
Secretary Baird (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001748/?ref_=tt_trv_qu): Broken Arrow. It's a Class 4 Strategic Theatre Emergency. It's what we call it when we lose a nuclear weapon.
Giles Prentice (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001844/?ref_=tt_trv_qu): I don't know what's scarier, losing nuclear weapons, or that it happens so often there's actually a term for it.


http://youtu.be/De29KipeZQw

[Guylee]

holy fuck.. as if we didnt have enough to worry about ranger!!!!! lol jk

Speak for yourself. I HATE feeling safe and secure.

[fly boy]

subscribing. This is peaking my curiosity.


Do you have a link to what you are reading/seeing?

[ruthabagah]

subscribing. This is peaking my curiosity.


Do you have a link to what you are reading/seeing?

Here is one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Tybee_Island_mid-air_collision

Here is another one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_British_Columbia_B-36_crash

And another one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965_Philippine_Sea_A-4_incident

and the Thule incident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Thule_Air_Base_B-52_crash

Finally: I do remember reading about one or two french nukes lost in the mediteranean, and a british one somewhere in the south atlantic.

Of course, we are not even talking about he russian ones...

[BushMasterBoy]

$500,000 reward if you find one.

[Ranger353]

Just do a search on YouTube for "Lost Nukes" and watch. Some of the videos are interestingly scary, based on the fact that so many are missing (lost) and no one seems to be overly excited about it.

[BuffCyclist]

Side note, White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

I used to live near there and would drive through WSMR on the way to the airport (Alamogordo to El Paso). There is a sign on the side of the highway that states in short "do not step off highway, unexploded ordnances, etc".

Last Friday, some scrap metal thieves (2 men, 2 women) decided they wanted to steal some metal on the WSMR property. So, they got out of their cars, crossed the barbed wire fence and apparently exploded one of those unexploded ordnances the 20ft x 40ft sign was talking about. They had to shut down the entire highway.

Article I'm linking on the issue but didn't read lol: http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_27399357/fbi-investigates-ordnance-explosion-that-injured-two-el

eta: Okay okay, not a side note it was totally off topic. Sorta. Government leaves behind explosives that I'm they have a log book of exact locations and civilians (albeit thieves) were injured. A nuke would be a lot more serious...

[Ranger353]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbN4hqaHlo4

Apparently others are asking the same questions; just ran across this video on YouTube.

[Wulf202]

That's not as scary as the lost plutonium that was found behind a file cabinet at Hanford

[Zundfolge]

I wonder why there hasn't been a more consolidated effort to find and recover so many devices, especially given the environmental impact of such a potential disaster?

I would assume that such efforts would be classified (and would have happened years after the losses so may still be classified) so it's quite possible that most (or some or all) of the lost nukes have since been recovered.

[MarkCO]

Apollo 13 had close to 4Kg of Plutonium that is now on the sea floor. Depending on depth, there is not enough oxygen to corrode even a cast iron casing. Sea water won't erode it either. Most casings for nuclear materiel are made of highly corrosion resistant materials anyway, so the risk of degradation to the casing is miniscule. Without maintenance, a nuclear device won't produce an atomic explosion after about 6 months.

Not going to say there is not a risk, but I think in the grand scheme of things, not that much of a risk.

[Ranger353]

Apollo 13 had close to 4Kg of Plutonium that is now on the sea floor. Depending on depth, there is not enough oxygen to corrode even a cast iron casing. Sea water won't erode it either. Most casings for nuclear materiel are made of highly corrosion resistant materials anyway, so the risk of degradation to the casing is miniscule. Without maintenance, a nuclear device won't produce an atomic explosion after about 6 months.

Not going to say there is not a risk, but I think in the grand scheme of things, not that much of a risk.
Good point. Thanks.

[buckshotbarlow]

godzilla!

[cstone]

godzilla!

Dagnabit! All this talk of undersea nukes had me thinking the Japanese monster movies of the 1950/60s were actually going to come true.

Now where did we put those two tiny little twin Japanese ladies that travel around with Mothra? Mosura No Uta

Be safe.

[fly boy]

believe it or not, there are defect/new species of sea creatures around the Marshal Islands, Bikini atol, etc. due to all the testing.

[zteknik]

There not lost- just in somebody's basement...

[fly boy]

There not lost- just in somebody's basement...

lol, you have no idea :D

[Danimal]

Deleted

[fly boy]

Whats crazier is the level of accuracy, skill and precision every single part of modern nuclear weapons require to actually function. One tiny little miss calculation or mismatch in the parts and you have a sphere of plutonium flying through the air with no (relative) danger. It requires an absolutely perfect compression force from all sides at the exact same moment to actually detonate. I don't worry about a lost one going off, I worry about the ones that were recovered by an unknown nation and reverse engineered.

Fusion fission fusion..... They will go kablewie

[fly boy]

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/almost-everything-in-dr-strangelove-was-true