How A Nuke Almost Exploded In North Carolina

[Richard]

According to recently declassified docs, North Carolina almost became NC (-) in a 1961 B-52 H-Bomb incident near Goldsboro.

Richard

How A Cold War Nuke Almost Exploded In North Carolina
CSM, 21 Sep 2013

Countering a long-time narrative by the US government, a massive nuclear bomb falling toward Goldsboro, North Carolina, after a B-52 bomber broke apart in 1961 bypassed several fail-safes, meaning an apocalyptic explosion was stopped only by a tiny last-ditch, low-voltage switch, new Freedom of Information Act documents explain.

The hydrogen bomb, which would have been 260 times more powerful than the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, had deployed its parachute as it fell and had begun its activation procedure, according to secret documents obtained by journalist Eric Schlosser and detailed in the Guardian newspaper.

Entitled “Goldsboro Revisited or: How I Learned to Mistrust the H-bomb,” the document, written eight years after the incident, states conclusively that “one simple, dynamo-technology, low-voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe,” writes Sandia Labs scientist Parker Jones.

“The MK 39 Mod 2 bomb did not possess adequate safety for the airborne alert role in the B-52," Mr. Jones adds.

The two H-bombs released by the torn-apart bomber landed in a field and a meadow, near Faro, N.C. The US government has long suggested that there was little to no danger to the American population because of the bombs’ fail-safe measures. More specifically, the Defense Department once told a UPI reporter that the bombs were, in fact, unarmed and could not have exploded.

But according to Mr. Jones, forensics showed that a firing signal was sent to the nuclear device when the Faro bomb hit the ground. The signal fizzled thanks only to the last-ditch switch.

An explosion could have spread fallout across major cities like Philadelphia, even New York, threatening millions of American lives. As it was, few Americans have ever known how close the country came to a nuclear disaster.

(Cont'd) http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/09...Carolina-video