Does anyone remember the Damascus incident?

[Jan SobieskiParticipant 28791]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion

We almost lost Arkansas. I was young but dont remember it.

Love is just alimony waiting to happen. Visit mgtow.com.

[Anonymous 11]

I will now, thanks.

[GregB0Participant]

in 1958 there was the Mars Bluff South Carolina nuc incident as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_Mars_Bluff_B-47_nuclear_weapon_loss_incident

All a result of someone sticking their hand where it did not belong.

​"​My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.​" - Clarence Buddinton Kelland

[Jan SobieskiParticipant 28791]

http://m.barnesandnoble.com/p/command-and-control-eric-schlosser/1115624496/2670570861967?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Marketplace+Shopping+greatbookprices_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP23938&k_clickid=3×23938

Love is just alimony waiting to happen. Visit mgtow.com.

[WPLParticipant 2390]

Funny this thread should come up — I recently started reading that book. Based on what I’ve read so far, I’d recommend it.

Not exactly the same subject, but another good read is “Atomic America: How a Deadly Explosion and a Feared Admiral Changed the Course of Nuclear History”, which discusses the SL1 incident near Idaho Falls. (There’s another book on that subject titled, “Idaho Falls: The Untold Story of America’s First Nuclear Accident”, but I don’t recommend it. Too much conjecture and speculation.)

There’s another book, “We Almost Lost Detroit”, by John G. Fuller (out of print), about an incident at the Fermi generating station. I haven’t read it, but I have read other books by Fuller and I expect that it would be equally good.

Jan Sobieski wrote:

http://m.barnesandnoble.com/p/command-and-control-eric-schlosser/1115624496/2670570861967?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Marketplace+Shopping+greatbookprices_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP23938&k_clickid=3×23938

[OldBillParticipant]

The Damascus silo fire has recently become more well known thanks to an episode of PBS’ “The American Experience” last season. It all began with a dropped socket wrench…

Since the 1940s, nuclear weapons and weapon cores have been lost and damaged in plane crashes, fires, other accidents. While reactors have had their issues too, bombs are scarier. We had an entire course on these incidents at Naval Nuclear Propulsion School.

During the 50s, the US lost weapons and weapon cores in the Med, over the Atlantic, and off British Columbia. Aircraft crashes involving nukes ranged from the UK, to several locations in the US, to Guam, and elsewhere. Along with Mars Bluff, USAF “lost” a hydrogen bomb near Savannah which has still not been recovered.

The 60s weren’t any better for USAF with the Goldsboro, Thule, and Yuba City crashes plus the loss of four hydrogen bombs off Spain when a refueling exercise went wrong. There was also at least one ICBM explosion during the decade. The USN lost a warhead when a Skyhawk went down off Japan, the Thresher and her reactor off New England, and the Scorpion off the Azores with her reactor and at least two “special” torpedoes.

Nuclear weapons can only detonate in a very specific manner so an explosion, crash, or fire isn’t going to trigger a nuclear detonation. What will happen instead is a conventional explosion which spreads radioactive materials; a “dirty” bomb.

The SL1 disaster received especial attention at NNPS. The Army wanted a nuclear electrical power plant which could be housed in railroad cars, the idea being that you could restore electricity to a damaged city by hauling a new power plant in on the rails. Accordingly, they were testing a very small reactor design at the Idaho NEL, so small that it was very unforgiving of mistakes. I won’t go into the details, but the 3 man night crew was performing maintenance when the actions of one of them cause the reactor to go “prompt critical”, meaning the reactor was placed in a condition where it’s power levels could no longer be controlled. A steam explosion resulted which killed all three men.

The first outside indications that the accident had occurred was when dosimeters a few miles from the site began alarming. When phone calls to SL1 weren’t answered, a car was sent. When it reached the site, however, the car never stopped or slowed nor did it’s occupants exit because the Geiger counters it carried were screaming.

Clean up took well over a year what with limited stay times mandated by the radiation levels in the facility. Two of dead men were recovered fairly quickly from the control room where they’d died in their chairs. The third wasn’t discovered for months. For a while it was thought he’d be literally blown apart in the steam explosion, then someone quickly visiting the damaged reactor containment building glanced up. The missing third man was pinned like a butterfly to the ceiling by the control rod he’d been working on.

Do not date. Do not impregnate. Do not co-habitate. Above all, do not marry. Reclaim and never again surrender your personal sovereignty.

[Y_Participant 4591]

Great find Jan. Thank you.

There are three films that I vividly remember from that era

Twilight’s Last Gleaming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMnX8Hd0TPQ

The Bedford Incident
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knnNDnP696c&list=PLW2aS9l-GClyFw7IrGn6coLOT6z4mwhEe

Dr Stranglove
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iinlGinSvE

[Anonymous 11]

OldBill wrote:

USAF “lost” a hydrogen bomb near Savannah which has still not been recovered.

My father and Uncle saw a flash when the Sabre collided with the B-47.

[Anonymous 11]

@GregBo:

I once met an old SAC veteran who used to fly the B-47s out of Hunter. He told me about that incident and the pin release. His daughter was getting ready to put him out to pasture in a nursing home.

[Author]

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