Nuclear history and its scientific developments

Nuclear History

This is a template and guideline for your use. Please do not use as turn-in paper.

(name), (school) ? (customer complete)

The Day We Lost the H-Bomb: Cold War, Hot Nukes and the Worst

Nuclear Weapons Disaster in History, Barbara Moran

New York, Random House Inc., 2009

This is the true story of a B52 loaded with nuclear bombs that explodes while trying to rendezvous with a tanker aircraft in 1966 over the Spanish town of Palomares for an in-flight refueling, and crashes along the Spanish coast, killing seven crewmembers, spilling the four unarmed hydrogen bombs over a wide area. Each of the weapons is approximately 70 times more powerful than the atomic weapons dropped on Japan during WWII.

Three of the bombs are recovered very quickly, but the fourth one is in the ocean -- no one knows where. After a four-month search, including the use of the Navy's mini-sub, Alvin, the fourth weapon is recovered. In the meantime, in a Cold War environment, Moran traces the chaos among governments, the spin control, massive clean-up effort, and the helpful assistance of the local fishermen and populace.

Deceptive packaging might be the call for the wordy title Moran gives her true account. The nuclear bombs were unarmed (not hot), and I'm not sure you could call this misadventure the worst nuclear weapons disaster in history -- compared to Three Mile Island? The massive catastrophe of Chernobyl in the Soviet Union? The Russian nuclear sub-accident? True, seven courageous flight crewmembers were killed, but that doesn't make it a nuclear disaster. However, for gathering headlines and readers, it probably works. This is a minor point, however, compared to her excellent work on the rest of this book.

Probably a worse disaster was the hassle the author had in gathering all the classified information she needed to write the book. She spent years doing it. And one must say she has done a credible job in tracking down the true story. Moran traveled to Spain, all over the U.S. interviewing dozens of people, and to North Dakota to visit the B52 bombers stationed there.

She sets the stage well for this unique story. Her descriptions of General Curtis LeMay, the Strategic Air Command's (SAC) first and most formidable commander, are classic. She also discusses SAC's policy at that stage in a frightening Cold War, of having B52s in the air 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

While some of the conventional weaponry that comprises parts of the hydrogen bomb exploded, the nuclear weapons did not (and could not without being properly armed first), but did scatter some plutonium in the local area which health officials later ruled a non-hazard.

The mission that day in 1966 was to take off from an east coast U.S. SAC base, fly across the Atlantic and maintain a circular route around the Mediterranean to make certain the Soviets could see them, accomplish a standard in-flight refueling with a KC-135 tanker aircraft over Spain and then return to their home base. Everything was routine until the attempted refueling.

Moran did her research well, including flying with a KC-135 tanker crew to experience an in-flight refueling so that she was cognizant of exactly what might have taken place that day. Her account of the accident holds the reader's attention, and, at the same time, seems purely objective.

Since the pilots of the B52 survived the disaster, along with the B52 navigator and spare pilot, her telling of the story comes first-hand -- at least the B52 crew's version since all aboard the KC-135 were killed. And, despite the vast differences between what the pilots told her and the results of the investigation board after the accident, Moran holds to an unbiased account of both.

She draws no conclusions other than repeating what the investigative board ruled. While the pilots described only a sudden explosion occurring at the rear of the B52 causing the accident, investigators later claimed that the B52 did pitch up and contact the tanker, ripping a hole in it and causing massive fuel spillage over the B52, which then ignited from the rear forward engulfing the tanker as well. B52 crewmembers all have ejection seats; KC135 crewmembers do not. Thus, the reason the only survivors were from the B52.

I think it is the detail Moran spends detailing the local villager's and fishermen's reactions and response to the crash that is the most touching about this story. The author obviously spent many hours, weeks, and months talking to them, learning about their families and background, and how and why they responded the way they did. Her description of the fishing boats picking up survivors and of the farmers locating the radar navigator of the B52 still in his seat and barely alive, are handled sensitively and not overdrawn with dramatics.