Elite Facts Presents
9 Nuclear Disasters That Shook The World
9. Palomares B-52 Crash On January 17, 1966, an American B-52 bomber
embarked on a mission from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. The aircraft
was carrying four Type B28 hydrogen bombs. The mission was part of the Cold War U.S.
Operation Chrome Dome. The plane was scheduled to travel east across the Atlantic Ocean and
Mediterranean Sea towards the European borders of the Soviet Union. The flight time required
two mid-air refueling sessions over Spain. During the second aerial refueling, the B-52
bomber contacted the KC-135 tanker, while flying at 31,000 feet (9,450 m). The nozzle
of the refueling boom hit the top of the B-52 fuselage, breaking the longeron and snapping
off the left wing. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing
all four crew members. The B-52 broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard.
The aircraft and the nuclear weapons crashed to earth near the fishing village of Palomares,
part of Cuevas del Almanzora municipality, in the Almeria province of Andalucía, Spain.
The conventional explosives in two of the nuclear bombs detonated upon impact, dispersing
plutonium over nearby farms, residential areas, and woods. It was estimated that 2-square-kilometers
of land was severely contaminated by radioactive plutonium. Of the four B28 hydrogen bombs,
three were found on land near the small fishing village of Palomares. The fourth bomb fell
into the Mediterranean Sea, and was recovered intact after a 2½ month-long search. It was
located at a depth of 2,900 feet (880 m). To defuse public alarm about the contamination,
the Spanish minister of information and tourism Manuel Fraga and the U.S. ambassador Angier
Biddle Duke swam on nearby beaches in front of press. The U.S. ambassador first swam at
Mojácar and then the pair swam at the Quitapellejos beach in Palomares. Four days after the accident,
the Spanish government announced that a NATO aircraft would no longer be permitted to fly
over Spanish territory, either to or from Gibraltar. On January 25, 1966, the U.S. announced
that it would no longer fly over Spain with nuclear weapons, and on the 29th the Spanish
government formally banned U.S. flights over its territory that carried such weapons. Millions
of dollars were spent on the radioactive cleanup. However, 45 years after the accident radioactive
material remains. In 2004, a study revealed that there was still significant amounts of
contamination present in certain areas, and the Spanish government subsequently expropriated
some plots of land, which would have otherwise have been slated for agriculture or housing.
In early October 2006, the Spanish and United States governments agreed to decontaminate
the remaining areas. Since the study began, reports have indicated that snails and other
wildlife have been observed with unusual levels of radioactivity. Two years after the Palomares
nuclear disaster, another B-52 bomber involved with Operation Chrome Dome crashed. The plane
was also carrying a load of four hydrogen bombs. The nuclear accident became known as
the 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 nuclear crash. During the incident, a fire broke out in the
navigator’s compartment of a U.S. B-52 near Thule Air Base, Greenland. The plane crashed
7 miles (11 km) from the air base, rupturing its nuclear payload of four hydrogen bombs.
The nuclear weapons landed in North Star Bay, Greenland, resulting in widespread radioactive
contamination. The incident caused outrage and protests in Denmark, as Greenland is a
Danish possession. After the accident, the United States and Denmark launched an intensive
clean-up and recovery operation, although the decontamination effort was complicated
by Greenland’s harsh weather. Tons of contaminated ice and debris were shipped and buried in
the U.S. One of the nuclear weapons remains lost to this day. The U.S. project Chrome
Dome was discontinued immediately after the incident. This nuclear accident directly led
to more stable nuclear warhead development in the United States.
8. Windscale Fire In 1946, the Second World War ended and the
United States government passed legislation that removed all nuclear weapons programs
in other countries. Many British scientists participated in the Manhattan Project, and
the British government did not want to be left behind in the nuclear arms race, so they
created a nuclear weapons program. Nuclear reactors were constructed near the tiny village
of Seascale, Cumberland, and were known as Windscale Pile 1 and Windscale Pile 2. The
facilities produced plutonium for the first British atom bomb. After the successful testing
of the British nuclear weapon, the U.S. designed and exploded a hydrogen bomb, which requires
tritium. Britain did not have any facility to produce tritium and decided to use the
Windscale piles. Higher temperatures are required to produce tritium. The decision was made
to reduce the size of the nuclear cooling fans used at the site. This enabled the production
of tritium, but it also created three separate hot spots in Pile 1. The precise cause of
the accident is not clear, but on October 10, 1957 parts of the nuclear reactor overheated
and a fire started in the Windscale Pile 1. The resulting fire burned for days, damaging
a significant portion of the reactor core. The nuclear fire released radioactive gases
into the surrounding countryside, primarily in the form of iodine-131. It was estimated
that 20,000 curies of iodine-131 and around 1,000 curies of caesium-137 were released.
However, like any nuclear accident, claims have been made that the contamination was
much more severe. No people were evacuated from the surrounding area, but there was a
concern that milk might be dangerously contaminated. Milk distribution was banned in a 200-square-mile
(520 km2) area around the reactor for a month. Thousands of gallons of contaminated milk
were dumped in the Irish Sea. Subsequent investigations have suggested that the official records may
have been altered in an attempt to cover up the possibility that during the radiation
leak the wind was blowing out to sea, significantly increasing the contamination dose to Ireland
and the Isle of Man. The direct damage to the surrounding area is unclear and a 1987
report by the National Radiological Protection Board predicted the accident would cause as
many as 33 long-term cancer deaths. Windscale Pile 1 was unsalvageable and after the removal
of some damaged fuel cell rods it was left alone. In 2008, the British government announced
that it would continue decontaminated the site. No air-cooled reactors have been built
since the Windscale fire disaster. Modern technology uses water as a cooling agent.
The Windscale fire was considered the world’s worst reactor accident until the Three Mile
Island incident of 1979. The Three Mile Island nuclear disaster was a partial core meltdown
in Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
However, the details of the Soviet Kyshtym nuclear disaster that occurred on September
29, 1957 was not made public for many years.
7. Soviet Submarine K-219 The K-219 submarine was a ballistic missile
sub used by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It carried 16 missiles equipped with
an estimated 34 nuclear warheads. On October 3, 1986, the submarine was on patrol 680 miles
(1,090 km) northeast of Bermuda when the seal in one of the missile hatch covers failed.
This allowed seawater to leak into the missile tube and react with residue from the missile’s
liquid fuel, producing nitric acid. The K-219 suffered a subsequent explosion and fire in
the missile tube. The Soviet Navy claimed that the leak was caused by a collision with
the submarine USS Augusta. However, the United States Navy has challenged the claim because
the K-219 had previously experienced a similar problem, and one of the submarines missile
tubes was disabled and welded shut because of the accident. After the explosion occurred
in silo six, the remains of the RSM-25 rocket and its two nuclear warheads were ejected
into the sea. The vessel quickly surfaced to permit its twin nuclear reactors to be
shut down. The submarine was then strapped to a Soviet freighter, and an attempt to tow
the vessel was made. However, the flooding had reached a point beyond recovery and the
K-219 sank to the bottom of the Hatteras Abyssal Plain, in 18,000 feet (5,500 m) of water.
The K-219’s full arsenal of nuclear weapons and reactors went down with the vessel. In
1988, the Soviet hydrographic research ship Keldysh positioned itself over the wreck and
reported that the submarine was sitting in the upright position on the bottom of the
ocean. It had broken into sections and it appeared that several missile silo hatches
had been forced open, and the missiles, along with the nuclear warheads they contained,
were gone. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev privately communicated news of the disaster
to U.S. President Ronald Reagan before publicly acknowledging the incident. The K-219 Soviet
submarine nuclear accident was one of the most controversial events of the Cold War.
6. Goldsboro B-52 Crash On January 24, 1961 an American B-52 bomber
was on a 24-hour airborne alert mission over the Atlantic seaboard. The aircraft was carrying
two Mark 39 nuclear weapons onboard. During the mission, the B-52 was scheduled to meet
with a tanker for mid-air refueling. While the plane was being refueled, the B-52 captain,
Major W.S. Tullock, was notified that his aircraft had a leak in its port wing fuel
cell. The plane was directed to assume a holding pattern off the coast until the majority of
fuel was used up. However, the captain soon reported that his plane had lost 37,000 pounds
(17,000 kg) of fuel in three minutes. He was immediately ordered to land at Seymour Johnson
Air Base, which is located in Goldsboro, North Carolina. As the plane descended to 10,000
feet, the pilots were no longer able to control the aircraft. The captain ordered the crew
to eject, which they did at 9,000 feet (2,700 m). The plane broke apart as it spiraled to
the ground and the nuclear weapons were separated from the craft. The wreckage of the plane
and its two nuclear warheads landed in a 2-square-mile (5.2 km2) area of tobacco and cotton farmland
near Goldsboro, North Carolina. Five crewmen attempted to parachute to safety, but three
died. One of the nuclear weapons discovered had become active. Five of the six arming
devices on the nuclear warhead activated, causing it to carry out many of the steps
needed to arm itself, such as the charging of the firing capacitors and the deployment
of a retardation parachute. The pilot’s safe and arm switch was not activated preventing
detonation. However, nuclear material was released into the atmosphere. The second bomb
plunged into a muddy field at around 700 miles per hour. It disintegrated and the bombs tail
was discovered about 20 feet (6.1 m) under the earth. Some of the nuclear weapon was
recovered, including the tritium bottle and all the plutonium. However, excavation was
abandoned due to uncontrollable ground water flooding. Most of the thermonuclear stage,
containing uranium, was left in the North Carolina ground. It is estimated to lie around
55 feet (17 m) below the earth. The Air Force purchased the land to prevent interference
with the nuclear remnants.
5. Goiania Accident – September 13, 1987 More than 240 people were exposed to radiation
when a junkyard dealer in Goiania, Brazil, broke open an abandoned radiation therapy
machine and removed a small highly radioactive cake of cesium chloride. The accident occurred
on September 13, 1987. The environment and surroundings were seriously contaminated.
Many buildings had to be demolished. 4 died in this accident. Many children got attracted
to the bright blue of the radioactive material, touched it and rubbed it on their skin, resulting
in the contamination of several city block.
4. Castle Bravo – March 1, 1954 Bikini Atoll, Micronesian Islands in the Pacific
Ocean was the site of more than 20 nuclear weapons tests between 1946 and 1958. Castle
Bravo was the codename given to the first U.S. test of a dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen
bomb. The test was performed on March 1, 1954, at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands. When the
weapon was detonated, an explosion took place, leaving a crater of 6,500 feet (2,000 m) in
diameter and 250 feet (75 m) in depth. Castle Bravo was the most powerful nuclear device
ever detonated by the United States, with a yield of 15 Megatons which was far exceeding
the expected yield of 4-6 Megatons. This miscalculation led to a severe accidental radiological contamination
ever caused by the United States. In terms of TNT tonnage equivalence, Castle Bravo was
about 1,200 times more powerful than the atomic bombs which were dropped on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki during World War II. Moreover, the radiation cloud contaminated more than seven
thousand square miles of the surrounding Pacific Ocean, including small islands like Rongerik,
Rongelap and Utirik. These islands were evacuated, but generations to come where affected. Natives
have since suffered from birth defects. A Japanese fishing boat, Daigo Fukuryu Maru,
also came into contact with the nuclear fallout, causing illness to all crew members with one
fatality. Fish, water and land were seriously contaminated, making Castle Bravo one of the
worst nuclear accidents.
3. Chalk River Nuclear Accident – 1952 Chalk River Laboratory (CRL) is a site of
major research and development to support and advance nuclear technology, in particular
CANDU reactor technology. On December 12th, 1952, a reactor shutoff rod failure, combined
with several operator errors, led to a major power excursion of more than double the reactor’s
rated output at AECL’s NRX reactor. INES rated the incident as level 5. A series of
hydrogen gas explosions hurled the four-ton gasholder dome four feet through the air where
it jammed in the superstructure. Thousands of curies of fission products were released
into the atmosphere, and a million gallons of radioactively contaminated water had to
be pumped out of the basement and “disposed of” in shallow trenches not far from the
Ottawa River. The core of the NRX reactor could not be decontaminated; it had to be
buried as radioactive waste. Young Jimmy Carter, later U.S. President, then a nuclear engineer
in the U.S. Navy, was among the hundreds of Canadian and American servicemen who were
ordered to participate in the NRX cleanup following the accident.
2. Kyshtym, Russia 1957 The Kyshtym Nuclear disaster was a radiation
contamination incident that occurred on 29 September 1957 at Mayak, a Nuclear fuel reprocessing
plant in the Soviet Union. It measured as a Level 6 disaster on the INES, making it
the third most serious Nuclear disaster ever recorded behind the Chernobyl Disaster and
Fukushima Daiichi Disaster. The event occurred in the town of Ozyorsk, a closed city built
around the Mayak plant. Since Ozyorsk/Mayak was not marked on maps, the disaster was named
after Kyshtym, the nearest known town.
1. Chernobyl, Ukraine 1986 The Chernobyl Nuclear disaster is widely considered
to have been the worst power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified
as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale (the other being the Fukushima,
Daiichi disaster in 2011). The battle to contain the contamination and avert a greater catastrophe
ultimately involved over 500,000 workers and cost an estimated 18 billion rubles. The official
Soviet casualty count of 31 deaths has been disputed and long-term effects such as cancers
and deformities are still being accounted for.
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