Updated

Updated · The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel · Aug 16

US B-52 Dropped 4 Nuclear Bombs Over Spain in 1966, Triggering 11-Week Sea Search

Updated

Updated · The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel · Aug 16

US B-52 Dropped 4 Nuclear Bombs Over Spain in 1966, Triggering 11-Week Sea Search

Q: What lingering secrets did the 2009 radiation survey reveal about the Spanish soil decades after the catastrophic nuclear crash?

The 2009 survey showed that Palomares still held pockets of residual plutonium contamination more than four decades after the 1966 crash, including in soil below the surface that earlier cleanup efforts had not fully removed. That three-dimensional radiation survey, carried out by Spain’s CIEMAT with U.S. cost-sharing under the long-running Hall-Otero/Project Indalo program, was designed specifically to map the remaining contaminated zones in detail. It confirmed that the original emergency cleanup had greatly reduced the hazard, but not eliminated it. The contamination was concentrated in limited agricultural areas where two bombs’ conventional explosives had dispersed plutonium. What made the findings significant was not simply that radioactivity remained, but that the survey defined its extent and depth well enough to support a final rehabilitation plan. In other words, the “lingering secrets” were hidden contaminated layers and hotspots in the Spanish soil that had persisted despite decades of monitoring and earlier soil removal. The survey did not suggest a new catastrophe, but it underscored that Palomares was still an unfinished Cold War cleanup case. Its results helped drive later bilateral planning on how much land still required remediation and how residual radioactive material should finally be managed.

1 articles · Updated · The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel · Aug 16

A January 17, 1966 mid-air collision during refueling over southern Spain broke apart a US B-52 carrying four thermonuclear weapons, scattering three near Palomares and one into the Mediterranean.
The crash occurred when the bomber approached a KC-135 too fast during its third refueling, and the tanker’s boom struck the B-52’s wing structure, tearing off the left wing and releasing all four bombs.
Two of the three bombs that fell on land detonated their conventional explosives, spreading plutonium and prompting a cleanup that involved more than 1,600 Air Force personnel.
Eleven weeks later, the USS Petrel recovered the fourth Mk 28 bomb after an 80-day seabed search involving more than 30 ships and the submersible Alvin.
Palomares later shaped the US response to the 1968 Thule nuclear crash in Greenland and helped drive the end of Operation Chrome Dome’s continuous airborne nuclear-alert patrols.

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The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel4d ago

1966 Palomares Incident: US B-52 Drops Four Nuclear Bombs Over Spain

How did a submersible's desperate 80-day hunt for a lost thermonuclear bomb forever change Cold War military strategy?

What lingering secrets did the 2009 radiation survey reveal about the Spanish soil decades after the catastrophic nuclear crash?

Did the veterans who cleaned up the radioactive wreckage without adequate gear ever receive justice for their hidden health battles?

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The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel4d ago

1966 Palomares Incident: US B-52 Drops Four Nuclear Bombs Over Spain

US B-52 Dropped 4 Nuclear Bombs Over Spain in 1966, Triggering 11-Week Sea Search

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