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List of military nuclear accidents

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This article lists notable military accidents involving nuclear material. Civilian accidents are listed at List of civilian nuclear accidents. For a general discussion of both civilian and military accidents, see List of nuclear accidents.

Scope of this article

In listing military nuclear accidents, the following criteria have been followed:

  1. There must be well-attested and substantial health damage, property damage or contamination.
  2. The damage must be related directly to radioactive material, not merely (for example) at a nuclear power plant.
  3. To qualify as "military", the nuclear operation/material must be principally for military purposes.

1940s

  • June 24, 1942 – Leipzig, Germany: Werner Heisenberg and Robert Dopel had an explosion in the Leipzig L-IV atomic pile, which resulted in a major fire. This occurred shortly after L-IV demonstrated Germany's first signs of neutron propagation. The device was in the process of being checked for a possible heavy water leak to the core; during the inspection air was accidentally introduced into the reactor core, leading to ignition of the uranium powder inside. The fire caused the heavy water jacket to boil, eventually generating enough steam pressure to blow the reactor apart. A spray of burning uranium particles were scattered throughout the lab, igniting a major facility fire.
A sketch of Louis Slotin's criticality accident used to determine exposure of those in the room at the time.

1950s

  • February 13, 1950 – After having serious engine trouble caused by ice buildup on the carburetors, the crew of a B-36 bomber from the 7th Bomb Wing jettisoned a MKIV Fat Man bomb off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, and detonated it with conventional explosives before the plane itself crashed north of Smithers, British Columbia. When it was released, the bomb did not contain the plutonium core needed for an atomic explosion. This was the first time in history a nuclear weapon was lost. See B-36B_44-92075.
  • April 11, 1950, – A B-29 bomber carrying a nuclear weapon, four spare detonators, and a crew of thirteen crashed into a mountain near Manzano Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, three minutes after departure from the Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque. The crash resulted in a major fire which was reported by the New York Times as being visible from "fifteen miles." The bomb's casing was completely demolished and its high explosives ignited upon contact with the plane's burning fuel. However, according to the DoD, the four spare detonators and all nuclear components were recovered. A nuclear detonation was not possible because the weapon's core, while being carried on-board, was not placed in the weapon for safety reasons. All thirteen crew members were killed.
The Castle Bravo fallout pattern.
  • March 1, 1954 – During the Castle Bravo nuclear test of the first deployable hydrogen bomb, a miscalcuation results in the explosion being over twice as large as predicted, with a total explosive force of 15 megatons. Of the total 15 megaton yield, 10 megatons were from fission of the natural uranium tamper, but those fission reactions were quite dirty, producing a large amount of fallout. That, combined with the much-larger-than-expected yield, and an unanticipated wind shift, produced a number of very serious consequences. Radioactive fallout was spread eastward onto the inhabited Rongelap and Rongerik atolls, which were soon evacuated. Many of the Marshall Islands natives have since suffered from birth defects and have received some compensation from the Federal government. A Japanese fishing boat, the Fifth Lucky Dragon, also came into contact with the fallout, which caused many of the crew to grow ill; one eventually died. This resulted in an international uproar, and reignited Japanese concerns about radiation, especially in regards to the possibility of contaminated fish.
  • November 29, 1955 – An operator's error led to a partial core meltdown in the experimental breeder reactor EBR-I, resulting in temporarily elevated radioactivity levels in the reactor building and necessitating a significant repair.
  • July 27, 1956– On a routine training mission, a B-47 bomber from the 307th Bombardment Wing crashed into a storage igloo containing three MK-6 nuclear weapons at the Lakenheath Royal Air Force Station, 20 miles northeast of Cambridge, England, killing the crew of four. Although the bombs involved in the accident did not have their fissile cores installed, each carried about 8,000 pounds of high explosives as part of their trigger mechanism. The crash and fire did not ignite the explosives and no detonation occurred. A retired Air Force general said later that if the explosives had detonated, releasing radioactive material, "it is possible that a part of Eastern England would have become a desert." Another Air Force officer said that it was only through "a combination of tremendous heroism, good fortune and the will of God" that a horrific nuclear weapons accident was avoided. The damaged weapons and components were later returned to the Atomic Energy Commission.
  • May 22, 1957 – A B-36 flying to Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, accidentally released a MK17 thermonuclear bomb through the closed bomb bay doors while on approach. The bomb did not contain the core needed for a nuclear explosion, but upon impact the conventional explosives detonated, making a crater 25 feet (7.6 m) wide and 12 feet (3.7 m) deep, and killing a nearby cow. The blast released some plutonium and contaminated the nearby area.
  • September 11, 1957 – A major fire at Rocky Flats weapon mill 27 km from Denver began in a glove box and spread through the ventilation system into the stack filters. Plutonium and other contaminants were released, but the exact amount of which is unknown; estimates range from 25 mg to 250 kg.
  • October 8–12, 1957 – See Windscale fire. Windscale Pile No. 1 at Sellafield north of Liverpool, England, began an annealing process to release Wigner energy from graphite portions of the reactor. The reactor that burned was one of two air-cooled graphite-moderated natural uranium reactors at the site used for production of plutonium. Technicians mistakenly overheated the reactor pile because poorly placed temperature sensors indicated the reactor was cooling rather than heating, leading to failure of a nuclear cartridge, which allowed uranium and irradiated graphite to react with air. The nuclear fire burned four days, damaging a significant portion of the reactor core. About 150 burning fuel cells could not be lifted from the reactor core, but operators succeeded in creating a fire break by removing nearby fuel cells. A risky effort to cool the graphite core with water eventually quenched the fire. The air-cooled reactor had released radioactive gases into the surrounding countryside, primarily in the form of iodine-131. Milk distribution was banned in a 200 mile² (520 km²) area around the reactor for several weeks. A 1987 report by the National Radiological Protection Board predicted the accident would cause as many as 33 long-term cancer deaths, although the Medical Research Council Committee concluded that "it is in the highest degree unlikely that any harm has been done to the health of anybody, whether a worker in the Windscale plant or a member of the general public."
  • January 31, 1958 – Morocco – During a simulated takeoff a U.S. Air Force B-47 carrying an armed nuclear weapon caught fire when a wheel failure lead to its tail hitting the runway and a fuel tank rupture. Some contamination was detected immediately following the accident.
  • February 28, 1958 – At the US-leased RAF airbase at Greenham Common, England, a B-47E of the 310th Bomb Wing developed problems shortly after takeoff and jettisoned its two 1,700 gallon external fuel tanks. The tanks missed the designated safe impact area and one hit a hangar whilst the other struck the ground behind a parked B-47E. The parked B-47E, which was fuelled with a pilot onboard and carrying a 1.1 megaton (4.6 PJ) B28 thermonuclear free fall bomb, was engulfed by flames. Whether any contamination resulted is disputed. See Greenham Common.
  • June 16, 1958 – A prompt neutron criticality accident occurred in the C-1 wing of building 9212 at the Oak Ridge Tennessee Y-12 complex. A supercritical portion of highly enriched uranyl nitrate was allowed to collect in the drum. It is estimated that the criticality produced 1.3 x 10*18 fissions. Eight employees were in close proximity to the drum during the accident, receiving neutron doses ranging from 30 to 477 rems. No fatalities reported.
  • December 30, 1958 – A critical mass of plutonium solution was accidentally assembled during chemical purification at Los Alamos. The crane operator died of acute radiation sickness. The March, 1961 Journal of Occupational Medicine printed a special supplement medically analyzing this accident. Hand-manipulations of critical assemblies were abandoned as a matter of policy in U.S. federal facilities after this accident.
  • November 20, 1959: A chemical explosion occurred in the radio-chemical processing plant at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee during decontamination of processing machinery. (Report ORNL-2989, Oak Ridge National Laboratory). The accident resulted in the release of about 15 grams of plutonium 239.

1960s

  • October 13, 1960 – A USSR Northern Fleet November class submarine, the ill-fated K-8, was on exercise in the Barents Sea when a leak developed in the steam generators and in a pipe leading to the compensator reception. While the crew rigged an improvised cooling system, radioactive gases leaked into the vessel. Three of the crew suffered visible radiation injuries, and according to radiological experts in Moscow; some crew members had been exposed to doses of up to 1.8 - 2 Sv (180 - 200 rem).
SL-1 reactor being removed from the National Reactor Testing Station.
  • January 3, 1961 – SL-1, a U.S. experimental military nuclear power reactor at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho, went prompt critical during maintenance procedures and caused the water surrounding the core to explosively vaporize, causing a pressure wave to strike the top of the reactor vessel, propelling the control rod and entire reactor vessel upwards, killing the operator who had been standing on top of the vessel and pinning him to the ceiling. Two other military personnel supervising the maintenance operations were also killed.
  • January 24, 1961 – A B-52 bomber suffered a fire caused by a major leak in a wing fuel cell and exploded in mid-air 12 miles (20 km) north of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Goldsboro, North Carolina. The incident released the bomber's two Mark 39 hydrogen bombs. Five crewmen parachuted to safety, but three died—two in the aircraft and one on landing. Three of the four arming devices on one of the bombs activated, causing it to carry out many of the steps needed to arm itself, such as the charging of the firing capacitors and critically the deployment of a 100-foot (30 m) diameter retardation parachute. The parachute allowed the bomb to hit the ground with little damage. The fourth arming device — the pilot's safe/arm switch — was not activated and so the weapon did not detonate. The other bomb plunged into a muddy field at around 700 miles per hour (300 m/s) and disintegrated. Its tail was discovered about 20 feet (7 m) down and much of the bomb recovered, including the tritium bottle and the plutonium. However, excavation was abandoned because of uncontrollable flooding by ground water, and most of the thermonuclear stage, containing uranium, was left in situ. It was estimated to lie at around 180 feet (55 m). The Air Force purchased the land and fenced it off to prevent its disturbance, and it is tested regularly for contamination, although none has so far been found. See: .
  • July 4, 1961 – The Soviet Hotel-class K-19 submarine experiences a major accident after a reactor cooling system fails off the coast of Norway. The incident contaminates the crew, parts of the ship, and some of the ballistic missiles carried onboard, and several fatalities result. Reactor core temperatures reach 800 °C, nearly enough to melt the fuel rods, although the crew is able to regain temperature control by using emergency procedures. The movie K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson, tells a controversially fictionalized story of these events.
  • December 5, 1964 – A Minuteman 1B missile was on strategic alert at Launch Facility (LF) L-02, Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota. Two airmen were dispatched to the LF to repair inner zone (IZ) security system. In the midst of their checkout of the IZ system, one retrorocket in the spacer below the Reentry Vehicle (RV) fired, causing the RV/nuclear warhead to fall about 75 feet (23 m) to the floor of the silo. When the RV/nuclear warhead struck the bottom of the silo, the arming and fusing/altitude control subsystem containing the batteries was torn loose, thus removing all sources of power from the RV/nuclear warhead. The RV structure received considerable damage. All safety devices operated properly in that they did not sense the proper sequence of events to allow arming the warhead. There was no detonation or radioactive contamination.
  • January 17, 1966 – Near Palomares, Spain, during over-ocean in-flight refueling, a B-52 collides with a United States Air Force KC-135 jet tanker. Eight of the eleven crew members are killed. The KC-135's 40,000 US gallons (150,000 L) of jet fuel burn. Two hydrogen bombs rupture, dispersing radioactive particles over nearby farms. An intact bomb lands near Palomares. The fourth bomb was lost at sea, 12 miles (20 km) off the coast. A search involving three months and 12,000 men recovers it. The US Navy employed the use of the deep-diving research submarine DSV Alvin to aide in the recovery efforts. During the ensuing cleanup, 1,500 metric tons of radioactive soil and tomato plants are shipped to a nuclear dump in Aiken, South Carolina. The U.S. settled claims by 522 Palomares residents for $600,000. The town also received a $200,000 desalinization plant. The motion picture Men of Honor (2000), starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. as USN Diver Carl Brashear, and Robert De Niro as USN Diver Billy Sunday, contained an account of the fourth bomb's recovery.
  • Winter 1966-1967 (date unknown) – The icebreaker Lenin, the USSR's first nuclear-powered ship, suffers a major accident (possibly a meltdown) in one of its three reactors. It was rumoured that around 30 of the crew were killed. The ship was abandoned for a year to allow radiation levels to drop before the three reactors were removed, to be dumped into the Tsivolko Fjord on the Kara Sea, along with 60% of the fuel elements packed in a separate container. The reactors were replaced with two new ones, and she re-entered service in 1970.
  • January 22, 1968 – 7 miles (11 km) south of Thule Air Force Base, Greenland, a fire breaks out in the navigator's compartment of a B-52 which crashes, scattering three hydrogen bombs on land and dropping one into the sea. During a cleanup complicated by Greenland's harsh weather, contaminated ice and airplane debris are buried in the U.S. Bomb fragments were recycled by Pantex, in Amarillo, Texas. Danes were outraged by the event because Greenland is a Danish possession, and Denmark forbids nuclear weapons on its territory. Denmark had massive demonstrations against the U.S. One warhead was recovered by Navy Seals and Seabees (U.S. naval engineers) in 1979. An August 2000 report suggests that the other bomb remains at the bottom of Baffin Bay.
  • May 24, 1968 – The nuclear submarine K-27 (Project 645) was out at sea. During sea trials, the nuclear reactor had operated at reduced power, and on May 24, power inexplicably suddenly dropped. Attempts by the crew to restore power levels failed. Simultaneously, gamma radiation in the reactor compartment increased to 150 rad/h. Radioactive gases were released to the reactor compartment from the safety buffer tank, and radiation on board the submarine increased. The reactor was shut down, and approximately 20% of the fuel assemblies were damaged. The incident was caused by problems in the cooling of the reactor core The entire submarine was scuttled in the Kara Sea in 1981.
  • August 27, 1968 – The Project 667 A Yankee class nuclear submarine K-140 was in the naval yard at Severodvinsk for repairs. On August 27, an uncontrolled increase of the reactor's power occurred following work to upgrade the vessel. One of the reactors started up automatically when the control rods were raised to a higher position. Power increased to 18 times its normal amount, while pressure and temperature levels in the reactor increased to four times the normal amount. The automatic start-up of the reactor was caused by the incorrect installation of the control rod electrical cables and by operator error. Radiation levels aboard the vessel deteriorated.
  • May 11, 1969 – 5 kg of plutonium burns at Rocky Flats. Hundreds of railway cars are used to transport the contamination to Idaho Falls, where it is left in unlined trenches over one of the US's most significant aquifers. The Colorado Committee for Environmental Information deployed scientists with sophisticated measuring equipment, putting officials on notice that the public now had the capacity to discover and report releases of radioactive substances. The committee's work in response to the fire discovered radioactive residue in areas near Rocky Flats that provided evidence of gradual build-up of radioactive compounds during the years of Rocky Flats operation.

1970s

  • December 1972 – A major fire and two explosions at a plutonium fabrication plant in Pawling, New York, cause plutonium to contaminate the plant and grounds, resulting in its permanent shutdown.
  • 1975 – The USS Guardfish attempts to dump the depleted resin from its purification system (used to remove dissolved radioactive minerals and particles from the primary coolant loops of submarines). The ship is contaminated when the wind blows resin back onto the ship. This type of accident is fairly common (see 1961).
  • August 1976 – An explosion at a Hanford, Washington, Plutonium Finishing Plant contaminated several workers. The plant converted plutonium nitrate solutions into metallic form for nuclear weapons production facilities. The explosion blew out a quarter-inch-thick lead glass window that shielded workers from radioactive materials. One 64-year-old worker was showered with nitric acid and radioactive pieces of glass. The worker inhaled the largest dose of americium-241 ever recorded. He inhaled about 500 times the U.S. government occupational standards for the element. The worker was placed in isolation for five months and given an experimental drug to flush the isotope from his body. By 1977, his body's radiation count had fallen by about 80 percent. When the worker returned home, friends and church members avoided him. His minister finally had to tell people it was safe to be around him. He died of natural causes in 1987 at age 75.
  • 1977 – The Soviet K-171 accidentally releases a nuclear warhead while off the coast of Kamchatka. After a frantic search involving dozens of ships and aircraft, the warhead is recovered.
  • May 22, 1978 – Aboard the USS Puffer near Puget Sound, Washington, a valve was mistakenly opened, releasing up to 500 US gallons (1,900 L) of radioactive water.
  • July 16, 1979 (34th anniversary of the Trinity test) – In Church Rock, New Mexico, the earth/clay dike of a uranium mill's "temporary" settling/evaporating pond fails. The pond was past its planned and licensed life and had been filled two feet (60 cm) deeper than design, despite evident cracking. The incident drains about 100 million US gallons (380,000 m³) of radioactive liquids and 1100 short tons (1000 metric tons) of solid wastes, which settle out up to 70 miles (100 km) down the Rio Puerco

1980s

  • September 19, 1980 – An United States Air Force repairman doing routine maintenance in a Titan II ICBM silo in Arkansas drops a wrench socket which rolls off a work platform and falls to the bottom of the silo. The socket strikes the missile, causing a leak from a pressurized fuel tank. The missile complex and surrounding area is evacuated and eight and a half hours later, vapors within the silo ignite and explode with enough force to blow off the two 740-short ton (670 t) silo doors and hurl the nine megaton of TNT (38 PJ) warhead 600 feet (180 m). The explosion kills an Air Force specialist and injures twenty-one other USAF personnel.
  • August 8, 1982– While on duty in the Barents Sea, there was a release of liquid metal coolant from the reactor of the Project 705 Alfa class submarine K-123. The accident was caused by a leak in the steam generator. Approximately two tons of metal alloy leaked into the reactor compartment, irreparably damaging the reactor such that it had to be replaced. It took nine years to repair the submarine.
  • January 3, 1983 – The Russian Kosmos-1402 nuclear-powered spy satellite burns up over the South Atlantic.
  • August 10, 1985 – About 35 miles (55 km) from Vladivostok in Chazhma Bay, an Echo-class submarine has a reactor explosion, producing fatally high levels of radiation. Ten officers are killed, but the deadly cloud of radioactivity does not reach Vladivostok.
  • 1986 – The US Government declassifies 19,000 pages of documents indicating that between 1946 and 1986, the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington, released thousands of US gallons (several m³) of radioactive liquids. Of 270,000 people living in the affected area, most received low doses of radiation from iodine.
  • October 3, 1986 – 480 miles (770 km) east of Bermuda, a Soviet Yankee I-class submarine experienced an explosion in one of its nuclear missile tubes and at least three crew members were killed. Sixteen nuclear missiles and two reactors were on board. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev privately communicated news of the disaster to U.S. President Ronald Reagan before publicly acknowledging the incident on October 4. Two days later, on October 6, the ship sank in the Atlantic Ocean while under tow in 18,000 feet (5.5 km) of water.
  • October 1988 – At the nuclear trigger assembly facility at Rocky Flats in Colorado, two employees and a Department of Energy inspector inhale radioactive particles, causing closure of the plant. Several safety violations were cited, including un-calibrated monitors, inadequate fire equipment, and groundwater contaminated with radioactivity.

1990s

  • November 17, 1996 – The Russian probe Mars 96 fails during launch and crashes back to Earth with an RTG on board. The location of the crash is disputed - either in the Pacific Ocean or in the mountains of Chile.
  • 1997 – Georgian soldiers suffer radiation poisoning and burns. They are eventually traced back to training sources abandoned, forgotten, and unlabelled after the collapse of the Soviet Union. One was a caesium-137 pellet in a pocket of a shared jacket which put out about 130,000 times background at 1 meter distance.

2000s

  • February, 2003 – Oak Ridge Tennessee Y-12 facility. During the final testing phase of a new salt-less uranium processing method the test experienced a small explosion followed by a fire. The explosion occurred in an unvented vessel containing unreacted calcium, water and depleted uranium, an exothermic reaction amongst these articles generated enough steam to burst the container. This small explosion breached the glovebox where it was stored. Air filtered into the damaged glovebox igniting some loose uranium powder (uranium is pyrophoric) starting a fire that slightly contaminated three employees. A year later BWTX, a partnership of BXW Technologies and Bechtel National was fined $82,500 for the accident.

See also

References and External Links

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