[CPEO-MEF] RADIATION, GLOBAL: Cleaning up plutonium in Palomares, Spain

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Signs of progress in a Spanish town's drive to get U.S. to finish  
cleaning decades-old nuclear bomb accident

The World, Public Radio International
June 6, 2012
Some 50 years ago, four American nuclear bombs were lost when the  
bomb carrying them exploded and lost its cargo into the Spanish  
countryside. Though there was no nuclear explosion, some of the  
plutonium in the bombs was spread across the town and surrounding  
area. Most of it was cleaned up, but not all of it.

The United States government calls nukes that go astray Broken  
Arrows. On a sunny January morning in 1966, Palomares, Spain, got  
four of them.
Two American Air Force planes collided in midair and exploded,  
dropping four nuclear bombs on a tiny Mediterranean farming village.

At 31,000 feet, an American B-52 bomber had collided with a refueling  
plane and broke apart. Three of its bombs fell to land, the fourth  
into the sea.

The accident did not cause a nuclear explosion. But radioactive  
material was dispersed over parts of the town and farmlands. The  
United States led a huge clean up. But they didn’t get it all.

...

For the entire story, see
http://www.pri.org/stories/politics-society/government/signs-of- 
progress-in-a-spanish-town-s-drive-to-get-u-s-to-finish-cleaning- 
decades-old-nuclear-bomb-accident-10127.html

You may need to cut and past the link.
--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street, Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650-961-8918 or 650-969-1545
Fax: 650-961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org