August 12, 2001
A NUCLEAR bomb, 100 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima, is lying 10km off the east coast of the United States. Until now one of the most closely guarded secrets in US military history, its existence has been confirmed in newly declassified documents which reveal how it was dumped in the sea after a mid-air collision more than 40 years ago. Pentagon officials, though admitting they do not know the bomb’s exact location, insist it is safe. They have rejected demands for it to be recovered, saying it is too dangerous to be touched.
The 3450kg hydrogen bomb, known as a Mark 15 weapon, has been lying off the coast of Georgia since February 5, 1958, when it was jettisoned from a B-47 Stratojet bomber after the plane was struck by a fighter jet during a training exercise at 36,000ft. One of the bomber’s wings was damaged and an engine dislodged. The pilot, Maj Howard Richardson, was ordered to drop the 3.5m bomb before attempting to land. He did so near Tybee Island, close to the mouth of the Savannah River. Despite a 10-week search, the bomb was never found."
etc etc
“Run! Run! It’s a 300 foot long mutant flying catfish shooting death rays from it’s eyes.”
I thought that nuke was common knowledge to the fine folks of Georgia. They talk about it occasionally on public radio. Causes some consternation when people talk about dredging the river or what happens when the next hurricane blows in.
Maybe the news is that the gummint admitted to losing it?
I live in Savannah, just 15 miles from Tybee Island. This story has flared up again lately and most folks feel it’s best to leave where it is. Wherever that is.
“live” nucs used to be flown on airborne alert all the time in the 50s and 60’s. Except they weren’t live. They needed a piece to be inserted in order to be capable of a nuclear detonation.
Well,
Like any good port city that’s seeking increased containership business, Savannah could eventually claim “deepest port channel on the East coast” without lying.
I live just outside of Savannah myself, and the local press does enjoy keeping us posted on the lost bomb. The main thing about the bomb right now is whether or not it was fully armed. Believe me, some places around here, a nuclear bomb blast would be an improvement (like my apartment…). Plus its a great thing to tell my parents when they visit, keeps their visits short.
This Creative Loafing cover story (Creative Loafing being Atlanta’s answer to the Chicago Reader) has more details on the incident. The Official Story seems to be that it didn’t actually contain any nuclear material, but that it did contain the conventional high explosive that would be used to implode the plutonium and trigger a fission reaction (which would in turn trigger a fusion reaction). If the Official Story is correct, there would be no chance of an actual thermonuclear explosion. Whether or not the bomb contained any radioactive material, and thus poses a radiation hazard, is a matter of dispute. It definitely contains several hundred pounds of high explosives, which isn’t Armageddon, but could definitely ruin someone’s day. The Air Force’s position is that the bomb, not having (according to them) any nuclear material, and being buried deep in the bottom mud, is perfectly fine where it is and poses no threat to any one (hence “safe”), unless someone decides to start messing with it, in which case you could get a big old conventional explosion (hence “too dangerous to touch”).
With respect to the bomb not containing any radioactive material, I will take that with a grain of salt. It may well not have the tritium/deuterium fusion core, and may or may not have the fission trigger, but the bomb case would be made of U-238. This serves as the reflector that allows the radiation pressure from the fission trigger to compress the fusion core, and eventually serves as the third stage in the fission-fusion-fission reaction.
It’s not the only nuclear device lost somewhere in the world, either. There’s an H-bomb off the coast of Spain, IIRC, and quite a few missiles aboard sunken nuclear subs (American and Soviet).
In that same time-frame, a bomb fell on Mars Bluff, SC, a lovely hamlet in the scenic wetlands on the road to the Grand Strand. While the atomic stuff didn’t explode, something did (detonators or something) and blew a small crater in the ground. Since that area is pretty swampy, it later filled in with water, and it’s on private property, so it’s not something that just anyone can go gawk at–not that there’s anything to gawk at, since it looks like any other pond.
“Oh, the pond? That’s actually a crater from the explosion when the Air Force accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb on the lawn. Now, if you’ll note, the front porch is fully enclosed…”
