A broken arrow is the Pentagon's phrase
for a serious nuclear weapon accident
that could threaten the public.
According to the Pentagon there have
been 33 broken arrows in history of our
nuclear program.
That's the official number. But I feel
very confident in saying it's a lot more
than 33.
"There is a ball of fire.
It has reached a point 1 mile above the
earth."
This technology has constantly
been on the verge of slipping out of our
control.
The very first test of a nuclear
device in 1945 in the desert of New
Mexico could have ended catastrophically.
J Robert Oppenheimer who was the
scientific director of the Manhattan
Project got worried someone might try to
sabotage it
so he asked a young scientist, Donald
Hornig, to climb to the top of the shot
tower – a hundred foot steel tower – and
quote babysit the bomb.
You've got a young scientist atop a
hundred foot steel tower and a totally
flat desert.
"It was a deeply philosophical experience"
Now while Donald morning was up there an
incredible lightning storm occurred
There's no doubt that if lightning had
struck that tower or near that tower
that device would have most likely
detonated and this young scientist
would have been the first victim of the
nuclear era.
"An atomic bomb breaks loose from a
mounting shackle in a b-47 jet over
Florence South Carolina, plummets to earth,
causing a sensational freak accident."
I got a document through the Freedom of
Information Act that lists more than a
thousand accidents and incidents
involving nuclear weapons
just between 1950 and 1968.
Palomares, Spain. During aerial refueling
the tanker and the bomber had a
collision and it dropped four hydrogen
bombs over Spain.
Damascus, Arkansas.
A workman drops a tool in a missile silo. The tool hits the missile causes a fuel
leak and on top of the missile is the
most powerful nuclear warhead the United
States has ever built.
Maintenance work is being done on an
atomic bomb and the worker doesn't
realize that one of the pins in the plug
of the testing equipment is bent when he
plugs the pin into the atomic bomb it
fully armed the bomb and nearly
detonates the bomb which would have
destroyed a large part of the Florida coast.
So.
"Although a beautiful sight this swirling
boiling mushroom cloud is certain death"
One of the problems with complex
technological systems is you never know
where a potentially catastrophic problem
can begin. Our principal nuclear bomber
is the b-52 and we haven't built a b-52
since John F Kennedy was president.
That was a long time ago. And what concerns me most
is the infrastructure. The wiring the
cables computers in our launch control
centers that rely on eight inch floppy disks.
We're very good at creating complex
technological systems. Not as good at
managing them and not very good at all
when something goes wrong with it.
