In 1961 America almost nuked itself

[jasonleaffan]

How is this even dealt with nation to nation? Either a cover up or what? Like "oh sorry buddies up north we almost wiped a major city off the map but yknow we have more of these things and you don't so suck it *****"

Not sure but it was covered up until the 80's when the air force confessed. They originally explained it away as a 500 pound test bomb.

Edit: USAF protocol prohibits any aircraft carrying a nuclear device and experiencing engine trouble from landing. So it's standard operating procedure to jettison their payload.

 

[Satan]

America

 

[Bones Malone]

Gotta spend money to make money

 

[tarheelhockey]

How is this even dealt with nation to nation? Either a cover up or what? Like "oh sorry buddies up north we almost wiped a major city off the map but yknow we have more of these things and you don't so suck it *****"

At that point there's no choice but to move up the date of the big invasion.

 

[KirkOut]

May 21, 1946 – Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA – Accidental criticality
While demonstrating his technique to visiting scientists at Los Alamos, Canadian physicist Louis Slotin manually assembled a critical mass of plutonium. A momentary slip of a screwdriver caused a prompt critical reaction. Slotin died on May 30 from massive radiation poisoning, with an estimated dose of 1,000 rads (rad), or 10 grays (Gy). Seven observers, who received doses as high as 166 rads, survived, yet three died within a few decades from conditions believed to be radiation-related.

I got this from wiki, the weird thing is he was working with a core that came to be known as the demon core. Which was involved in another accident prior to this one which resulted in a scientist dieing.

even though the demon core was destined to be the next bomb, I think its name is ill-deserved. Both accidents were operator error. The other one a grad student was working on this core alone and was building a reflective structure out of bricks when he noticed that adding one more brick would make it go critical. He then proceeded to accidentally drop the brick onto the core ...then stood there and disassembled the bricks.

Crit accidents are unfortunately too common since the start of nuclear technology. there have been dozens of them in the USA and other countries alike. Look up the Mayak facility in Russia for some particularly ridiculous ones.