Email to J Taschner, Subject: Broken Arrow File (Palomares Spain)

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Subj: FW: Broken Arrow File Date: 12/4/03 12:56:53^J^J\/!ountain Standard Time Received from Internet: click~here for more information How goes it? I'm just back to work after being off for two and one-half weeks following eye surgery for repair of a partial retinal detachment. Here's something you might be interested in. From: Prather, Jeff (Contractor) Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 9:37 AM To: Cornette, Jimmy; david.r.case Subject: Broken Arrow File Sorry, I guess you can’t open the Early Bird link from a non-DoD computer. '66 H-Bomb Accident Still A Concern In Spain By Yvonne Zanos PALOMARES, Spain -- Almost 40 years have passed since the U.S. Air Force accidentally dropped four hydrogen bombs on Spain. But the fallout continues with a newly published scientific study that traced the spread of radiation from the accident site - and continuing rumors about a mysterious fifth bomb that supposedly is still leaking on the Mediterranean Sea floor. Ironically, while the scientists who conducted the study discount the fifth-bomb theory, their findings have fueled the rumors. They reported that the Mediterranean, indeed, has been contaminated - but only from radioactive material that washed into the sea from the bombs that hit land. They also said current levels of radioactivity pose no threat to people. The story goes back to Jan. 17, 1966, when a B-52 bomber and a KC-135 tanker aircraft collided during a refueling exercise over the sleepy farming village of Palomares on Spain's southeastern coast. Both planes disintegrated and down went the B-52's four hydrogen bombs, creating the first U.S. nuclear weapons crisis near a populated area. Each 1.5-megaton bomb packed 100 times more explosive power than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in World War II. Two were found intact. One fell on land, the other into the Mediterranean, where it was recovered after an 80-day effort dramatized in the 2000 Hollywood film "Men of Honor." The movie spotlighted U.S. Navy diver Carl Brashear, who lost a leg in the effort.

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Non-nuclear explosives in the other two bombs detonated when they hit the ground. Hydrogen bombs contain conventional explosives that trigger the nuclear blast. Seven pounds of plutonium were splattered over 558 acres of Palomares, forcing an $80 million clean-up by the United States. Military crews hauled away 1,500 tons of radioactive soil and tomato plants for burial at a nuclear waste dump in Aiken, S.C. Some radioactive material inevitably was left behind, perhaps as much as 15 percent of the total. "The remainder of the original plutonium clearly has spread, and spread widely," said William R. Schell, a University of Pittsburgh emeritus professor and a member of the international team that reported on the accident in the current edition of the journal Science and the Total Environment. "There's been quite a bit of migration into the Mediterranean." Radioactivity was detected in western Mediterranean plankton - tiny plants and animals that drift in the water and serve as staple food for fish and other larger organisms. "It was a surprise," said Barcelona, head of the research team. Sanchez-Cabeza explained that plutonium does not dissolve easily in water. Yet somehow, plutonium and a related radioactive material, americium, got into the water and were taken up by marine Plutonium is extremely toxic and lingers in the environment for ages. It takes 24,000 years for half of a given amount to decay. Plutonium outside the body is relatively harmless because it emits a form of radiation that cannot penetrate skin. But when absorbed into the body from air, food or cuts in the skin, it can cause cancer and other serious health problems. The research team found that the highest radiation levels in the plankton were well below the human danger level set by the World Health Organization. It also learned that the plutonium apparently does not accumulate to higher levels in the fish that eat plankton - a matter of particular concern to the Spanish, who eat a lot of "We think that the plutonium found in plankton should not be of serious further research and monitoring is needed." The study revived rumors that a fifth nuclear bomb from the Palomares accident was never recovered and remains submerged in the Mediterranean, leaking radiation. A Spanish radio news program dredged up the old stories right after the new study was announced. "That has been a local rumor or worry in the area since the accident," the station's commentator noted. "Well now, the latest radioactive readings in local plankton have started to rise. I'll leave you to decide for yourselves if there is another bomb." Sanchez-Cabeza, noting the lack of any documentation to support the

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American B-52 bombers in the 1960s typically carried four hydrogen bombs. In another of more than 30 known "Broken Arrow" incidents between 1950 and 1980, a nuclear-armed B-52 crashed near the Thule Air Base in Greenland in 1968. Crews recovered four nuclear bombs. Researchers dismiss the fifth-nuke stories and believe that contaminated soil from Palomares eventually washed into the ocean after heavy rains. Wind-blown dust, which contains the same chemical "fingerprint" as the radiation found in the soil at Palomares, may be another source. The U.S. Department of Energy and its Spanish counterpart are monitoring the health of Palomares' 1,500 residents. The Energy Department said the accident so far has caused no known radiation-related cancers or other health problems. In 2002, the U.S. Air Force surgeon general re-analyzed the radiation exposure of 1,500 U.S. military veterans involved in the Palomares clean up. Their work involved packing contaminated soil in steel drums, burning tainted crops and roto-tilling fields to bury radioactive material. The surgeon general concluded that they were exposed to only one-tenth the current radiation limit for workers at commercial nuclear power plants and other facilities. The Air Force study reached similar conclusions for 700 personnel involved in cleaning up the Broken Arrow incident in Greenland, which happened when a B-52 caught fire and the crew was forced to bail out. Conventional explosives in the hydrogen bombs detonated in that incident as well, spreading plutonium and other radioactive material over the ice and snow. In his 1997 book "America's Lost H-Bomb," the late Randall C. Maydew, a government nuclear weapons guru who helped design arming, fusing, firing and safety systems, wrote that the Palomares case and other Broken Arrow episodes produced at least some beneficial fallout: They prompted designers to make weapons less prone to release radioactive material in the case of an accident. Nuclear weapons dropped 30 times U.S. nuclear weapons have been dropped or involved in other accidents at least 30 times, according to publicly available information. At least 11 were never recovered. Among the "Broken Arrow" incidents, military code for a nuclear weapons February 1950. The crew of a troubled U. S. Air Force B-36 dumped nuclear weapons into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Canadian province of British Columbia before bailing out. Non-nuclear explosives in the trigger mechanism detonated on impact, releasing radiation. May 1957. An Air Force plane accidentally dropped a 10-megaton hydrogen bomb in the desert near Albuquerque, N.M. Its conventional explosives detonated, releasing radiation. July 1957. An Air Force transport plane lost engine power and jettisoned two nuclear weapons into the Atlantic Ocean between Rehoboth Beach, Del., and Cape May, N.J. They were never recovered.

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January 1958. A B-47 crashed and burned at a U.S. Strategic Air Command base northeast of Rabat, Morocco, releasing March 1958. A B-47 accidentally dropped a nuclear weapon into the backyard of a home in Mars Bluff, S.C. Conventional explosives detonated, destroying the house, injuring the occupants and damaging other neighborhood buildings. Early 1958. A nuclear bomb fell into the Atlantic Ocean east of Savannah, Ga., after a mid-air collision between two planes. It was never recovered. October 1959. Two nuclear bombs were recovered intact after a B-52 and a refueling tanker collided and crashed in January 1961. A B-52 bomber exploded in mid-air 12 miles north of Goldsboro, N.C., releasing two hydrogen bombs. One was undamaged. The other tunneled into a swampy field in Faro, N.C., where fragments remain embedded today. January 1964. A B-52 with two nuclear weapons crashed in a blizzard in northwestern Maryland near the Pennsylvania border with no release of radiation. Post Your Problems appears Tuesday through Friday, addressing questions and problems from readers. Yvonne Zanos from KDKA-TV looks into consumer-related issues, including difficulties with products and services. Post-Gazette Staff Writer Lawrence Walsh helps sort through bureaucratic problems.