Missing for 50 years - US nuclear bomb

BBC ^ | 23 June 2009 | Gerry Northam

[BGHater]

More than 50 years after a 7,600lb (3,500kg) nuclear bomb was dropped in US waters following a mid-air military collision, the question of whether the missing weapon still poses a threat remains.

In his own mind, retired 87-year-old Colonel Howard Richardson is a hero responsible for one of the most extraordinary displays of aeronautic skill in the history of the US Air Force.

His view carries a lot of weight and he has a large number of supporters - including the Air Force itself which honoured his feat with a Distinguished Flying Cross.

But to others, he is little short of a villain: the man who 50 years ago dropped a nuclear bomb in US waters, a bomb nobody has been able to find and make safe.

'Top-secret flight'

Shortly after midnight on 5 February 1958, Howard Richardson was on a top-secret training flight for the US Strategic Air Command.

It was the height of the Cold War and the young Major Richardson's mission was to practise long-distance flights in his B-47 bomber in case he was ordered to fly from Homestead Air Force Base in Florida to any one of the targets the US had identified in Russia.

The training was to be as realistic as possible, so on board was a single massive H-bomb - the nuclear weapon he might one day be instructed to drop to start World War III.

As he cruised at 38,000 feet over North Carolina and Georgia, his plane was hit by another military aircraft, gouging a huge hole in the wing and knocking an engine almost off its mountings, leaving it hanging at a perilous angle.

Colonel Howard Richardson ditched the bomb off Tybee Island

[GonzoGOP]

Your right, I was thinking beta particles/neutrons. Heck if all its throwing off is helium nuclei that's an even better reason to just let the darn thing alone. You won't even get mutations in the fish unless they eat stuff.

[3niner]

...it lacks the vital plutonium trigger.

But his case has been vigorously contested by opponents who raise apocalyptic fears of a thermonuclear explosion which could destroy much of the US eastern seaboard.

Such impenetrable stupidity is unbelievable! Without the "plutonium trigger" it's not even remotely conceivable that a "thermonuclear explosion" could occur, even when the bomb was brand new.

What's more, the light isotopes required for a thermonuclear explosion are barely radioactive, with relatively short half lives. They couldn't create a fusion explosion now, even if the bomb were complete and in good condition.

The only explosion risk is from the chemical explosives, and there is no significant radiation present to be released.

[abb]

[Larry Lucido]

I already found it.

Banged on it with a hammer for a while to make sure it’s a dud. It is.

Using it as a coffee table now (damn, spilled some!).

[ejonesie22]

Have you noticed that you coffee doesn’t get cold as fast there as it does on other tables?

[Yorlik803]

So that is the large object in my basement. I wondered why it is so warm...

[NonValueAdded]

Which others? Who? I've read about this story for 20 years and never once heard anyone castigate him personnally.

Why, the others who wanted him to crash land on the runway (or worse. in a populated area) with the bomb in the belly of the plane, have the explosives cook off, and distribute the fissionable material all over the crash site. Those others. :)

[SoftwareEngineer]

LOSTIE ping!!!

I am a die hard Lostie!

[Washi]

From the article... Colonel Richardson is adamant that it is incapable of a nuclear explosion because it lacks the vital plutonium trigger. So technically it wasn't even a nuclear weapon when it was lost. It won't be emitting any radiation either.

That's how I read it.

So why was it necessary to dump it in the first place if it were incapable of a nuclear explosion?

[tanknetter]

So why was it necessary to dump it in the first place if it were incapable of a nuclear explosion?

It sounds like this is a 2-stage thermonuclear bomb. Without the trigger, there'll still be a good deal of radioactive material, plus high-explosives, aboard the bomb. If the high-explosives cook off, there won't be a "nuclear" detonation, but there will be a radiological event. IOW, while the bomb isn't capable of incinerating a city, it is capable of exploding as a "dirty bomb" and causing a huge mess.

[tanknetter]

Should add: the possibility of the high-explosives cooking off is much higher in a aircraft crash situation than it is with the bomb hitting the water.

[tanknetter]

Fears have also been expressed that the bomb could be located and recovered by a terrorist group, and there are even some who believe that may already have happened.

More scaremongering. If the USAF and USN couldn't find it over the course of years, there's little possibility that a terrorist group could either. Especially considering that locating it and bringing it up wouldn't be a quick snatch/grab operation but something requiring dredging and lift equipment. The fishermen that fish that area (mentioned in the article) would be sure to notice something going on that they weren't up to speed on. And they'd call in the Coast Guard.

For reference, look at the effort required by that Clive Cussler group to locate and lift the CSS Hunley a few dozen miles North (off Charleston) from where this missing bomb is.

[Freedom4US]

Basically it has long been considered de rigeur to unass the payload when aviation bad stuff happens. For example, upon takeoff your #3 engine stalls out, etc. Extra weight is not your friend in situations like that.

[SeeSharp]

So why was it necessary to dump it in the first place if it were incapable of a nuclear explosion?

According to the article they wanted to get rid of the weight. It weighed around 4 tons.

[Silent One]

LOSTIE PING!!!

Who's Jacob's adversary and will the real John Locke please stand up:-)

[Edgar3]

LOSTie (((PING)))

[Oztrich Boy]

The fissionable materials have degraded so much in 50 years that there is no way to send it critical now

While without a primary stage there is no way it will go critical, the U-235 in the tamper of the secondary stage has a half life of 700,000 years. It won't have changed at all.

[Corin Stormhands]

Julia hit it with a wrench and it blew up underground in 1977.

Which sort of explains the remainder of the Carter years, doesn't it?

[driftdiver]

You joke but in Russia they used radioactive waste as portable heaters.

[Jack Hammer]

I wonder how many “LOSTies” are on here?

Here’s one...