America's lost H-bomb

[Renner.alan@gmail.com]

I don't think cement will contain a nuclear explosion.

Forgive me, I don't believe them particularly when it comes to the condition and arming status, there are conflicting reports and I always believe the government lies first and only tells the truth when forced to or after it is too late such as the recent terrorist attack at Ft. Hood.

N

It's basic physics my friend... you don't have to believe anyone. They teach how to make an H bomb in high school now. The basics anyway; Half life, Neutron decay, the Fission, fusion, fission ..... needed to make the H bomb go BOOM.

Don't worry you were probably asleep at the back of the class with the rest of us when they went over that part... Cheers. Al

 

[Nemrod]

It's basic physics my friend... you don't have to believe anyone. They teach how to make an H bomb in high school now. The basics anyway; Half life, Neutron decay, the Fission, fusion, fission ..... needed to make the H bomb go BOOM.

Don't worry you were probably asleep at the back of the class with the rest of us when they went over that part... Cheers. Al

I don't know what you are inferring or talking about, I guess because I was not asleep in the back of the class with you.

I fully understand the concepts, what you don't seem to understand is tongue in cheek sarcasm.

BTW, plutonium, depending upon the particular isotope, has a half life of, oh, 14 years to 80 Million years, not something you want spread around your backyard. It doesn't have to go "BOOM" as you say to be a danger.

N

 

[captain]

If it happens to detonate we can blame it on the Iranians and launch a retaliatory strike, Iranian problem solved!

 

[Nemrod]

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"The bomb is also charged with 400 pounds of TNT, designed to cause the plutonium trigger to implode and thus start the nuclear explosion. As the years go by, those high explosives are becoming flaky, brittle and sensitive. The bomb is most likely now buried in 5 to 15 feet of sand and slowly leaking radioactivity into the rich crabbing grounds of the Warsaw Sound. If the Pentagon can't find the Tybee Island bomb, others might. That's the conclusion of Bert Soleau, a former CIA officer who now works with ASSURE, the salvage company. Soleau, a chemical engineer, says that it wouldn't be hard for terrorists to locate the weapon and recover the lithium, beryllium and enriched uranium, "the essential building blocks of nuclear weapons." What to do? Coastal residents want the weapon located and removed. "Plutonium is a nightmare and their own people know it," says Pam O'Brien, an anti-nuke organizer from Douglassville, Georgia. "It can get in everything--your eyes, your bones, your gonads. You never get over it. They need to get that thing out of there."
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Let's go over this again for the people asleep in the back of the class, a potentially leaky plutonium bomb lost somewhere in coastal waters is not a good thing. Maybe it is a danger, maybe, truly it is not but somehow I don't think I want to believe the people who cannot tell that an Army doctor is going nuts or cannot get enough flu vaccine or find a plutonium bomb off our own coast or get it straight if it was actually armed or not, which in fact, it probably was.

There was an incident just a couple of years ago where the Air Force failed to unload a bomb or two and follow their paperwork, I guess it flew around a little, unsupervised, but I think in this case they were not armed. Still, oops. Really, none of this is funny or a joking matter.

N

 

[OldNSalty]

I don't know what you are inferring or talking about, I guess because I was not asleep in the back of the class with you.

I fully understand the concepts, what you don't seem to understand is tongue in cheek sarcasm.

BTW, plutonium, depending upon the particular isotope, has a half life of, oh, 14 years to 80 Million years, not something you want spread around your backyard. It doesn't have to go "BOOM" as you say to be a danger.

N

I'm with you on that Nemrod, I am not sure what the inference was.

 

[DandyDon]

If it happens to detonate we can blame it on the Iranians and launch a retaliatory strike, Iranian problem solved!

Would not be the first time.

 

[Seaduced]

Pretty bad when the USAF tries to bomb Georgia and misses...

With that bomb... close counts...

I watched show about a group trying to detect the radiation they presumed would be leaking from the bomb. The background levels were so high, they couldn't isolate a high level area to begin a search. I don't know what the enclosure is made of, but something is going to leak someday.

 

[DandyDon]

With that bomb... close counts...

I watched show about a group trying to detect the radiation they presumed would be leaking from the bomb. The background levels were so high, they couldn't isolate a high level area to begin a search. I don't know what the enclosure is made of, but something is going to leak someday.

Straight into the Gulf Stream...?

 

[BelchFire]

Some years ago, there was a guy living on the coast that claims to know exactly where it is. He proved his point with a geiger counter. Mil brass got wind of his research (no pun intended) and sent a bunch of folks down to investigate. "Nope, nothing to see here, folks" was their answer. All the discussion at the time was about the deteriorated condition of the casing and the fact that IF he had indeed found it, it would be far more dangerous to bring it up than to just leave it in the silt. And as a Georgia resident, I tend to agree. What I disagree with was the summation that he didn't find it. As I recall, (from memory) his evidence was fairly sound and backed up with radiation readings. At the very least, couldn't they have unloaded a few hundred tons of concrete just to be sure?

For the record; Concrete will not contain a nuclear detonation, but that's not the intended use. Most radiation can be stopped with a sufficiently thick layer of cement; that's how they isolated Chernobyl. It would be a precautionary measure to 1) protect the marine life and lives of folks eating coastal harvests and 2) to prevent (or inhibit) the retrieval of said radioactive material, should someone want to bring it up. The problem is that once the cement is dumped, the location would be fairly obvious and methinks that the mil brass in charge would rather play the bluff than go meddling with something that's been rusting in sea water that long.

JMTC (and it's been a long time since I read that article)

 

[tfsails]

I'd be willing to bet that after 51 years in salt water the bomb casing is so deteriorated that dredging it up would do more harm to the environment than leaving it undisturbed. This incident occurred at a time in the Cold War where USAF bombers flew all the time with nukes aboard. That practice didn't stop until the late '60s. Were I in the decision-making loop and we knew where the weapon was, I'd be damn tempted to leave it be and certainly to keep the exact location quiet. It's a big ocean--the ragheads ain't gonna find the bomb.

As one who spent 36 years in the USAF and ANG, I can assure you that control of nuclear weapons is priority #1. They are the safest weapons we have. They cannot go off accidentally if unarmed. They don't get armed until immediately before they are to be launched. Conventional bombs can go off accidentally if mishandled. Nukes can't. The Minot incident a couple of years ago just goes to show that even those entrusted with nukes can make mistakes if the correct followup procedures aren't followed. Heads rolled after that incident. Nobody was ever in any danger, however, and the ALCMs were never armed.

Never thought I'd use my military aircraft experience on Scubaboard!!