[puppypusher]

I’m really surprised that the Air Force was not able to find a trace of radiation being emitted by any of the bombs.

[SmokingJoe]

There were two bombs. They recovered one who’s parachute had deployed and landed safely. The other one where the parachute failed to deploy sank into the swamp, and while they recovered some parts like the failed parachute etc, they never recovered the parts in the image in the OP, which are the more dangerous parts.

[gr8eman]

Not too surprising if the thing hit the ground in freefall and sunk into the Earth, it could be pretty far below the ground. Since they know the approximate location of impact, a LEO satellite could surely find any emitting radiation, if there was any. Only question is...what is the half life of the nuke material? IMO it will not detonate on it's own like a WWII bomb..

I have personally seen 500Lb bombs (yes, plural) in Germany that some lucky backhoe operator "found" that were meters below the surface. If something that volatile could remain in tact all of those years and still provide a threat (Yes, there were a lot of unlucky backhoe operators) then all bets are off as far as I'm concerned. That's the empirical evidence that exists in such a conventional situation. Who knows? with Nukes!