# 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:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**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, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/21 "2003-07-28T01:37:04Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. Yikes, that’s scary. Could you cite that, YWalker? ---
**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2003, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/22 "2003-07-28T02:19:15Z")
From [the site **Ranchoth** cited](http://www.cdi.org/Issues/NukeAccidents/accidents.htm): > [@](#): > > January 24, 1961, Goldsboro, North Carolina > > In what nearly became a nuclear catastrophe, a B-52 bomber on airborne alert carrying two nuclear weapons broke apart in midair. … However, the second bomb’s parachute malfunctioned and the weapon broke apart upon impact, scattering its components over a wide area. According to Daniel Ellsberg, the weapon could have accidentally fired because “five of the six safety devices had failed.” ---
**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 31, 2003, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/23 "2003-07-31T04:24:19Z")
Thanks. That’s pretty darn sobering. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/24 "2003-07-31T06:25:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Whack-a-Mole \* > \*\*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? \*\* Well, lets see: Dive deep into the ocean on the almost-certainly doomed effort to fish-up a small quantity of conventional explosives in a nuke-_shaped_ case, at a cost of thousands of dollars (at a minimum) - or - Mix up your you own equally powerful explosives in your garage from commercially-available components in _much_ larger quantities for the same cost and much higher chance of success. Hmmm… If _I_ were a bad guy, which would _I_ choose? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![nikotime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e0b2c6/32.png) [@nikotime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikotime)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/25 "2003-07-31T07:03:16Z")
Tranquilis, if you were a bad guy, surely you would send frogmen from your nearby under water base… ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/26 "2003-07-31T14:37:06Z")
The one upshot of using the discarded 400# bomb would be that the explosives could be traced back to the US. If someone wanted to try to implicate or link the US in a massive bombing, that is… I’m just sayin’, is all. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/27 "2003-07-31T16:37:23Z")
The bomb is perfectly safe, guarded by sharks with fricken’ laser beams on their heads. ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2003, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/28 "2003-07-31T19:46:12Z")
> [@](#): > > They found it and 11 of the 12 safety latches had failed - meaning if 12 of 12 had failed it would have detonated. and > [@](#): > > According to Daniel Ellsberg, the weapon could have accidentally fired because “five of the six safety devices had failed.” I find both of these very hard to believe. It sounds a lot like media sensationalism. The nature of how these bombs work make it very unlikely that one would go off after/during crashing to the ground. It takes a very precise and controlled explosion to make one of these devices go “high order”. True, the conventional explosives in the device may detonate, but then you are only talking about pounds of explosives not kilotons of a warhead (megatons for a hydrogen bomb, but that’s another story). ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2003, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/29 "2003-08-03T05:59:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by thinksnow \* > \*\*The one upshot of using the discarded 400# bomb would be that the explosives could be traced back to the US. > > If someone wanted to try to implicate or link the US in a massive bombing, that is… > > I’m just sayin’, is all. \*\* Lots o’ easier ways of doing _that_… A couple thousand bucks to your friendly local corrupt supply seargeant, and you’re all set! Could get maybe a couple thousand pounds of brand new stuff, very credible! When you get it, make sure to send a finder’s fee to me, c/o The Hidden Underwater Bad Guy’s Base, Tidewater Region, GA. Scuba messengers accepted. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/30 "2003-09-29T00:13:19Z")
Giving this a bump having just run across [this article](http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/07/donahue.htm) about the accident in question. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/31 "2003-09-29T00:46:30Z")
Electronics still working well enough to set off a nuke after 45 years of submergance? Someone hasn’t got all their facts together, to say the least. > [@](#): > > Duke says that weapons have emerged from stormy seas and exploded before, although he is hazy about where and when. And well he might be hazy: While conventional weapons can and do sometimes surface, and _are_ dangerous, they are set off by mechanical systems, not the complex and precise electronic package necessary to detonate a nuke. In other words, his ignorance is as great as his enthusiasm. At most, you _might_ have an explosion of the lenses which would scatter the core about. Even that is highly unlikely, though nothing to sneer at. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027/32 "2003-09-29T06:31:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SunTzu2U \* > \*\*My appologies to the author where ever he may be. \*\* “He died of rheumatic fever on 21 July 1796, and was buried four days later in St. Michael’s churchyard (Dumfries, Scotland), while his wife was in labour with their ninth child. Burns was reinterred in a domed mausoleum in 1815.” You can see [a photo of the mausoleum](http://www.scran.com/robertburns/memorials/2/) here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hidden-nuke-near-savannah-ga/191027.md?page=1)