One hydrogen bomb can ruin your whole day

In theory, there's no limit to the explosive power of hydrogen bombs. /Image via AFP

In 1961, three days after the inauguration of President John Kennedy, a B-52 broke up in mid-air over Greensboro, N.C., sending two hydrogen bombs hurtling toward the heart of the East Coast.

As it plunged downward, one of the bombs automatically armed itself. The warhead, 260 times more powerful than the nuclear device dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II, was equipped with four safety devices, three of which failed to stop the arming process. Luckily for the hundreds of thousands of people in the would-be blast zone and tens of millions more at risk of exposure to deadly radioactive fallout, the fourth safety device averted catastrophe.

The Guardian is at it again.

The same British newspaper that published Edward Snowden's stunning revelations about National Security Agency snooping on U.S. citizens and allies abroad has published a declassifed top-secret document detailing one of the most terrifying nuclear weapons accidents in the history of mankind. The document, which includes comments by a nuclear safety official at the Sandia national laboratory and a physicist who helped develop nuclear bombs in the Manhattan Project, was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Among The Guardian's reporting on the 1961 incident:

• "One of the (doomed B-52's) devices behaved precisely as a nuclear weapon was designed to behave in wartime: its parachute opened, its trigger mechanisms engaged and only one low-voltage switch prevented untold carnage."
• "Had the device detonated, lethal fallout could have been deposited over Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and as far north as New York City -- putting millions of lives at risk."
• The Greensboro incident document was gathered as part of investigative journalist Eric Schlosser's research for his recently released book on the nuclear arms race titled Command and Control. According to The Guardian, "...he discovered that at least 700 'significant' accidents and incidents involving nuclear weapons were recorded between 1950 and 1968 alone."

It's been a bad month for publicity about U.S. nuclear weapons programs. On Sept. 12, The Associated Press published a scathing report on the U.S. government's stewardship of nuclear weapons facilities across the country. Among the report's disclosures:

• The National Nuclear Security Administration "has racked up $16 billion in cost overruns on 10 major projects that are a combined 38 years behind schedule."
• "At Los Alamos National Laboratory, a seven-year, $213 million upgrade to the security system that protects the lab's most sensitive nuclear bomb-making facilities doesn't work."
• "In Tennessee, the price tag for a new uranium processing facility has grown nearly sevenfold in eight years to upward of $6 billion because of problems that include a redesign to raise the roof."
• "Virtually every major project under the National Nuclear Security Administration's oversight is behind schedule and overbudget -- the result, watchdogs and government auditors say, of years of lax accountability and nearly automatic annual budget increases for the agency responsible for maintaining the nation's nuclear stockpile."