# A hidden Nuke near Savannah, GA **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 26, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027 "2003-07-26T04:44:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/1 "2003-07-26T04:44:08Z")
I just read Cecil’s column about the nuclear submarines and that reminded me of something I had seen or read about a bomb hidden in the Savannah River near the city of Savannah. Apparently a plane flying near Savannah was transporting a nuclear bomb from one site to another. Either the plane began to have mechanical troubles and had to dump its payload, or something was wrong with the bomb. I don’t remember that detail. Either way it happened and there may be a bomb in the Savannah River. Is any of this true and what is the danger? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/2 "2003-07-26T04:49:14Z")
> [@](#): > > **Air Force recommends not disturbing Savannah bomb** > > 07/11/01 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) – Air Force officials announced a recommendation July 11 not to recover a nuclear training bomb that was jettisoned off the coast of Savannah, Ga., in February 1958. > > The training bomb, which has about 400 pounds of explosives, will remain categorized as irretrievably lost. > > Air Force officials consulted with the Navy, the Department of Energy and the Savannah District Army Corps of Engineers to investigate the details surrounding the incident, the current condition of the bomb and associated hazards. > > Each agency studied these areas independently. The collective opinion is to leave the bomb undisturbed. > > Since there was no nuclear capsule on the bomb there is no possibility of a nuclear explosion. Source: [http://www.af.mil/news/Jul2001/n20010711\_0944.shtml](http://www.af.mil/news/Jul2001/n20010711_0944.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/3 "2003-07-26T05:52:08Z")
One tends to run into stuff like that when looking up reports of “lost” nuclear weapons. That is, often the weapons didn’t actually have _any_ nuclear material installed in them when they wre lost. …kinda like losing a pistol that didn’t have bullets or a trigger mechanism. 'Not much more than a hunk of metal. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/4 "2003-07-26T12:48:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ranchoth \* > \*\*…kinda like losing a pistol that didn’t have bullets or a trigger mechanism. 'Not much more than a hunk of metal. \*\* [evil voice] That’s exactly what we want you to think. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!![ev] ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/5 "2003-07-26T13:53:42Z")
The word “nuclear” is such a lightning rod. I used to work at nuclear power plants. One time, I swear to god, a guy fell off a ladder and broke his ankle at the plant, and it made the nightly news! Not only that, the talking head actually said “no radiation was released as a result of this accident”…:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/6 "2003-07-26T16:41:06Z")
Did he work in Sector 7G? Please tell me he worked in Sector 7G! Sorry for the non-factual post, but the OP has already been answered ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/7 "2003-07-26T18:08:51Z")
Smithers, who is this “USCDiver”? ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/8 "2003-07-26T18:34:17Z")
On a related note, I’ve heard of stories about a real honest-to-God nuke lost in the Mississippi Delta. ---
**Author:** ![trabi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@trabi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trabi)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/9 "2003-07-26T20:18:19Z")
Er… It may not have a nuclear warhead, but isn’t 400 pounds of conventional explosives still a worrying thing to possibly find tangled up in your fishing nets? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/10 "2003-07-26T20:25:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by trabi \* > \*\*Er… It may not have a nuclear warhead, but isn’t 400 pounds of conventional explosives still a worrying thing to possibly find tangled up in your fishing nets? \*\* No kidding. “Hey Billy Bob! Getta lookit what I done found here!” _kick_ ---
**Author:** ![SunTzu2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@SunTzu2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunTzu2U)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/11 "2003-07-26T20:40:21Z")
The nuclear threat to Savannah comes from an entirely different source. Back in the 80’s I had a friend working with an engineering firm who was working on a “dynamic compaction” project concerning nuclear waste. What is “dynamic compation” you might ask? Dynamic compaction is the process where you take a 20ton weight, raise it 50 to 100 feet off the ground with a crane and then drop it upon whatever you want to compact. In this case it was low to moderate level radioactive contaminants buried in and around Savannah. The firm was hired to compress this buried nuclear waste so that they could add to it and try to seal it off from the ground water and aquifier. I have a little engineering experience and asked my friend if they did this wouldn’t there be a chance of fracturing the surrounding clay structure and actually causing leaks? He said there was a possibility but that they had worked out the numbers and the plan to avert that. Shakespear comes to mind here “all the best laid schemes of mice and men gan aft agleah”. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/12 "2003-07-26T20:46:45Z")
**SunTzu2U** , interesting info. Welcome to SDMB! I wonder if centuries hence history will remark on how all Americans died from “friendly fire.” ---
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/13 "2003-07-26T21:32:42Z")
From SunTzu > [@](#): > > Shakespear comes to mind here “all the best laid schemes of mice and men gan aft agleah”. from [http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/62050.html](http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/62050.html) > [@](#): > > From Robert Burns’ poem ‘To a Mouse’, 1786. It tells of how he, while ploughing a field, upturned a mouse’s nest. The resulting poem is an apology to the mouse and goes on to say that ‘the best laid schemes o’mice an’men, Gang aft a-gley’. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2003, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/14 "2003-07-26T22:12:52Z")
…btw, [here’s](http://www.cdi.org/Issues/NukeAccidents/accidents.htm) a site listing known U.S. nuclear weapons accidents. It seems pretty “balanced,” and even differentiates between the loss of nuclear bombs that didn’t have any fissile material, and the loss of the few that _did_. ---
**Author:** ![SunTzu2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@SunTzu2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunTzu2U)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/15 "2003-07-27T04:23:02Z")
Well I stand corrected. I do recall reading the poem as a HS Senior in Lit class. My appologies to the author where ever he may be. It has been 25 years since I read the poem yet this verse stayed stored in my head just misfiled as to author. Thanks for helping me file it correctly bizzwire. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/16 "2003-07-27T04:38:23Z")
**SunTzu2U** , you might, I suppose, fracture a clay, but any resulting permeability will be short-lived, as the clay’s inherent plasticity will allow it to quickly heal the fractures. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2003, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/17 "2003-07-27T23:02:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by trabi \* > Er… It may not have a nuclear warhead, but isn’t 400 pounds of conventional explosives still a worrying thing to possibly find tangled up in your fishing nets? Absolutely, but the ocean’s a big place and there are other hazards. As a more extreme case of the same danger, after both world wars the British government dumped large quantities of surplus ordnance into the seas around the island. This was done into specified zones, which are both well known to fishermen and which have to be marked onto nautical charts. Clearly, trawlers avoid fishing in such areas (in fact, I presume it is illegal to do so), but inevitably there’s a certain amount of uncertainty and such stuff can shift around. There’s also some amount of unaccounted stuff out there (crashed bombers, stray mines, etc.). Dragging up a bomb is thus recognised as a small, yet non-trivial, danger of the job. Worrying about a **single** lost conventional bomb seems a bit, well, wussy. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/18 "2003-07-28T00:21:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bonzer \* > \*\*Worrying about a **single** lost conventional bomb seems a bit, well, wussy. \*\* Yeah but it is there. What if some bad guy wanted to retreive it for nefarious purposes and was willing to risk his/her neck getting it? If the military knows where the thing is why don’t they sail over and drop another bomb on it (or otherwise find a way to blow it up)? Chalk it up as a training exercise. And what the hell is a nuclear weapon _without_ fissile material? Sounds like a regular bomb to me so why attach the scary ‘nuclear’ moniker to it? ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/19 "2003-07-28T01:32:44Z")
The Air Force dropped a nuclear bomb that was real in NC about 40 years ago. I think it was because of some kind of accident but I can’t remember exactly what happened. They found it and 11 of the 12 safety latches had failed - meaning if 12 of 12 had failed it would have detonated. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@The\_Great\_Zamboni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Zamboni)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/20 "2003-07-28T01:34:33Z")
I remember where I saw this now. It was dumb TV show called “Phenemenon”, hosted by Dean Stockwell. It was peudoscience and non-science along the lines of “Sightings”. That show was convinced there was fissile material on the bomb and there was a conspiracy to cover up an accident. :smack: I can’t believe I believed that for while. Everyone can be fooled, though. Thanks for the real dish, Duckster. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027.md?page=2)