During the Cold War, the whole world watched with bated breath the confrontation between the USSR and the United States, fearing that one or the other side might start a nuclear war. However, no one even thought about the risk of the death of the country from their own weapons. Travis Air Force Base, 1950. Broken arrow
In 1950, during the Korean War, the US government seriously considered the use of nuclear weapons to resolve the conflict between the two countries. In August of the same year, 10 B-29s left the airbase in California and rushed towards Guam. On board each aircraft was a bomb, the power of which was twice the power of those that were dropped on Japan. Some time after takeoff, one of the planes started having problems with the engine. General R. Travis, who was on board, ordered the pilot to deploy the bomber, but during landing, the plane had problems with the landing gear. Realizing that the car was falling, the pilot began to take the plane away from settlements. The plane crashed at the edge of the base. The disaster killed 12 of the 20 people on board, including General Travis. The impact detonated 5,000 pounds of explosives. The explosion caused the death of 7 more people. There would be millions of times more casualties if the bomb were equipped with a fission capsule. The US Air Force, in an attempt to cover up the incident, reported that the training flight was conducted using conventional bombs. A few months later, the base was named after the gene. Travis. In military vocabulary, the term "Broken Arrow" is used to describe nuclear emergencies, but not nuclear war. Fermi Enrichment Reactor 1, 1966. Withered GiantA few months later, the base was named after the gene. Travis. In military vocabulary, the term "Broken Arrow" is used to describe nuclear emergencies, but not nuclear war. Fermi Enrichment Reactor 1, 1966. Withered GiantA few months later, the base was named after the gene. Travis. In military vocabulary, the term "Broken Arrow" is used to describe nuclear emergencies, but not nuclear war. Fermi Enrichment Reactor 1, 1966. Withered Giant
What happened at Fermi 1 was the result of engineering errors, violation of the safety rules and lack of experience. By making changes to the cooling system, the technicians forgot to reflect this in the documentation. Thus, the engineers working on the reactor were not aware that, in addition to liquid sodium, there were dispersion plates inside the tank. The blockage of the cooling pipes led to overheating of the core and its partial melting. The reactor fuel was so hot that the cooling systems could not cope and the suppression of other systems and the vessel began. Tybee Island, 1958. Broken Arrow
A hydrogen bomb has been located near Tybee Island, Georgia, at a depth of about 3 meters for about 50 years. She got there as a result of the accident of a B-47 bomber, which occurred during training flights in 1958. The bomb, 12 pounds long, was loaded with 400 pounds of explosives and uranium. The crew requested permission to dump the dangerous cargo into the ocean, and no one has heard of the bomb since. It is still not known whether the bomb contained a combat or training capsule. All attempts to find it ended in failure, since this was hampered by the natural radiation of the Earth. According to the Air Force, the capsule was a training capsule. The detonation of a hydrogen bomb that fell into the ocean could wipe out the city of Savannah. Idaho Falls, 1961. Withered Giant
Experimental reactor SL-1 was located near Idaho Falls and was run by the military. On the night of 1961, people were woken up by an alarm. Special personnel arrived at the signal, but they could not reach the control room for about 2 hours due to radiation. Having finally made their way inside, they found the bodies of two reactor workers, one of whom was still alive at that time. However, no one was saved. The bodies were so poisoned by radiation that they had to be buried in lead sarcophagi. A few days later, rescue services found another operator. At the time of the accident, he was at the reactor, and was nailed to the arch with rods. The cause of the accident was a human factor, namely manual control of rods made of neutron-absorbing materials. The reactor was under maintenance,during which it was necessary to pull out these control rods just a few centimeters. The design of this reactor assumed the presence of one control rod, and it was almost all of its extraction that caused the critical reaction. The burst of energy caused the cooling water to evaporate, causing an explosion that stopped the reaction. NORAD, 1979. NADFLASH (almost) The North American Aerospace Defense Command used computer simulations of the Soviet Union's nuclear attack on the United States, which nearly led to the outbreak of war. The Missile Defense Agency received a signal that a whole cloud of nuclear warheads were heading towards the United States. Immediately, the airplanes took off, and the commanders were only waiting for an order to start action. Finally, data were received from the satellite and from the Early Warning Radar thatthat there was no attack. It turned out that the reason was an accidentally turned on recording of the training response to the attack, which gave out false signals. In military jargon, YADVSFASHKA means the presence of a nuclear explosion. Anna Ponomareva