Palomares, Spain

Palomares, Spain

Associated Press (2006, October 8) Spain, U.S. Agree to Radioactivity Cleanup 40 Years After Atomic Accident. Fox News. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,218559,00.html

Geitner, P (2008, September 12) Spanish Town Struggles to Forget Its Moment on the Brink of a Nuclear Cataclysm. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.greenchange.org/article.php?id=3228

(2010, December 10). Wikileaks: USA has no interest in Palomares. Euro Weekly News. Retrieved from www.euroweeklynews.com/2010122085070/news/costa-de-almer%C3%ADa/wikileaks-usa- has-no-interest-in-palomares.html

On January 17, 1966, a B-52 Bomber, carrying four hydrogen bombs, collided with a flying tanker while refueling over Palomares, Spain. The collision released all four of its hydrogen bombs in the ensuing explosion, dropping three on the ground and one into the Meditterranean Sea. The nuclear warheads, many times more powerful than those that fell on Hiroshima, did not go off, but the parachutes failed to open on two of the bombs, resulting in high-explosive detonations that, although nonnuclear, spread radioactive material across a 2-square-kilometer area. Seven crew members died, while four parachuted to safety. No one on the ground was killed.

The contaminated soil, composed of a high amounts of plutonium, uranium and americium was placed into 6,000 barrels of 250-liter drums and relocated to the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina. Land with lower levels of contaminants where mixed with soil and forgotten.

The U.S Department of Energy and Spain's CIEMAT, the National Center for Energy and Environment Investigation, revealed that there was still significant radioactive elements found in plots that could have otherwise been used for agriculture or housing construction. By 2006, an additional 2 million liters of contaminated earth was discovered in two trenches. The U.S and Spanish government agreed to decontaminate the remaining areas and share the workload and costs, estimated at $2 million, abiding to the cost sharing arrangment made back in 1966 (which was scheduled to end in 2008). But by 2010 the U.S allegedly ceased payments, claiming the financial obligations had run out.