AMERICA'S LOST ATOM BOMBS

A plane overhead captured the Baker test nuclear bomb in 1946 with surrounding war ships in the sea. 

File handout picture of a mushroom cloud rising with ships below during Operation Crossroads nuclear weapons test on Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands.

US ATOMIC CRISIS:

17 nuclear bombs go MISSING - one found off coast of Canada

 

A NUCLEAR bomb discovered off the coast of Canada has raised fears there may be dozens more atomic warheads missing across the globe.           

              

There are an estimated 700 further so-called Broken Arrow in the US alone

A commercial diver found the bomb - thought to be from an American B-36 bomber which crashed in 1950 - near British Columbia last month while searching for sea cucumbers.

 

Experts believe discovery of the deadly device - a Mark 4 warhead - is not an isolated incident.

 

There are an estimated 700 further so-called Broken Arrow in the US alone, and nobody really knows how many nuclear weapons other powers have been "lost".

From the early 1900's through to the modern days, countries across the World have been planning and testing their nuclear bombs. Take a look through the most incredible explosions.              

U.S. Navy file handout image shows Baker, the second of the two atomic bomb tests, in which a 63-kiloton warhead was exploded 90 feet under water as part of Operation Crossroads, conducted at Bikini Atoll.

The US is missing at least eight fully-explosive bombs, plus another nine that contain other radioactive substances - mostly depleted uranium.

 

The term "Broken Arrow" is the term used for incidents involving nuclear mishaps, including accidental firing, theft or loss of a weapon.

 

Estimates for the US alone suggest there may be a total of around 700 cases, affecting up to 1,250 nuclear weapons.

 

Similar data for Russia and the Soviet Union is not readily available, but sunk nuclear submarines are known to pose a particular risk.

 

The first case in which a US nuclear weapon was lost was the crash of a B-36 strategic bomber on February 13, 1950, off the west coast of Canada.

 

The non-nuclear charged bomb was dropped, with the conventional explosive exploding on impact.

 

Diver Sean Smyrichinsky believes he may now have discovered the rest of the bomb.

 

In 1950 there were four other similar incidents, including uranium pollution of an area on the St. Lawrence River.

 

In 1956 a B-47 jet bomber crashed into the Mediterranean. It had two plutonium cores on board, one of which was never found.

 

 

The first accident with a fully deployed US nuclear weapon occurred in Morocco in 1958 when a B-47 crashed.

 

The bomb on board - a Mark 6 - did not detonate, but contaminated the environment with radiation.

 

Since 1968, no US nuclear weapon has been lost.

 

At that time America had about 32,000 warheads; today they still have slightly more than 5,000.

By MONIKA PALLENBERG AND TOM BATCHELOR

Nov 9, 2016

express uk.