Posted on 06/17/2005 9:35:00 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAVANNAH, Ga. - The first government search in decades for a hydrogen bomb lost off the Georgia coast in 1958 found no trace of the sunken weapon, the Air Force said Friday.
The report — issued nine months after scientists tested radiation levels off Tybee Island — concluded that there is no danger of a nuclear blast from the 7,600-pound bomb and that the weapon should be left where it is, buried somewhere in the muck.
"We still think it's irretrievably lost. We don't know where to look for it," said Billy Mullins, an Air Force nuclear weapons adviser who led the search.
A damaged B-47 bomber jettisoned the Mark-15 bomb into Wassaw Sound about 15 miles from Savannah after colliding with a fighter jet during a training flight.
The military soon gave up the search for the bomb, but decided to look again last year, after a retired Air Force pilot claimed his private search team had detected unusually high radiation levels in the sound.
"I'll have to agree with them," said Derek Duke, who has spent more than five years searching for the bomb. "Whatever we thought we saw maybe wasn't anything at all."
Government scientists took radiation readings and soil samples Sept. 30 from an underwater area the size of four football fields. The report said varying radiation levels were detected, but they were from natural elements in the sediment on the sea floor.
"The best course of action in this matter is to not continue to search for it and to leave the property in place," said the report by the Air Force Nuclear Weapons and Counterproliferation Agency.
The Air Force has said the bomb contains uranium and about 400 pounds of conventional explosives, but lacks the plutonium capsule needed to trigger a nuclear blast. The amount of uranium was undisclosed.
In 2001, the Air Force declared the bomb "irretrievably lost" and said it lies buried beneath 8 to 40 feet of water and 5 to 15 feet of mud and sand.
City officials on Tybee Island, a beach community of 3,400 residents, urged the government four years ago to recover the lost nuke. After hearing the Air Force report Friday, City Manager Bob Thomson agreed it is best left alone.
"I'm not saying it's a good thing that we have a warhead out there," Thomson said. "But I believe the greatest danger is it being disturbed from its watery grave."
No.
The book was about Arab terrorists getting a nuke. Hollywood isn't afraid of Arab terrorists -- it kinda likes them -- so the movie makers changed the Arab terrorists to the much more believable threat (if you're a typical Hollywood exec, meaning a left-liberal atheist of Jewish heritage) of European Neo-Nazis. The relentless PC of the moviemakers ruined what might have been a good film.
Why, we can't show the terrorists as being from the race and religion responsible for over 90% of terrorism... that would be stereotyping. Paugh.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Water is an excellent shield for radiation. It is used for that exact purpose in some reactor designs.
Yes, that's why I question how well we can detect a nuke in the bottom of an oil tanker filled with oil going into any port USA.
This wouldn't fly if it were his car keys, or his wallet, why should it fly with a nuke.
I'm sur ethe residents of Tynbee don't agree!
IIRC - the Navy lost a nuke in the ocean off Japan - it was never recovered either.
Wasn't that a Tom Clancy novel?
I vaguely remember a plot where terrorist discover a lost Israel nuke, modify it for there own uses and then detonate it at a US sporting event. Fortunately the yield is lower due to engineering designs.
The Ruskies dug it out of the muck in the early 60s with a recovery submarine.
"Clive Cussler found the H.L. Hunley in similar conditions..."
I think some other guy is claiming he found it first, like 25 years before Cussler, and has some documentatin. Either way, it was found, which I guess was your point.
RE #6: The potenacy of the high explosive depends on a lot of things. . The shell of the bomb was not likely broken therefold it may not be broken now or yet. There is approximately a ton of HE. There is likely no danger of nuclear yield in the event of detonation except for residual radiation . If people find it they should let the Air Force know so experienced people can handle it . A ton of high exlosive can cause a lot of damage.
You may be more accurate than I on the amount of HE but the location is approximately 100 miles away from the site where are looking.
This information was given me 45 years ago by a person formerly in that outfit that droped the bomb and for a different reason than that being advanced recently.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I agree. I am convinced that Lee Spence found the Hunley in 1970 -- and documented and reported his findings. Here is a whole collection of articles on the Spence/Cussler Hunley controversy .
My point was that Cussler systematically searched a large area -- using modern technology (magnetometers and side-scan sonar) -- and he successfully (re) located the Hunley.
If the USAF really wanted to locate the Tybee Island "Broken Arrow", the (magnetometer) technology is available to do so. IMHO, radioactivity detection would be the appropriate tool to verify that a mag anomaly was, indeed, the bomb -- not a primary search tool.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.