
List of Nuclear Close Calls - Reedx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_close_calls
======
TheCodex
Forgot this one.

"Lt. Jack ReVelle, the bomb disposal expert responsible for disarming the
device, claimed "we came damn close" to a nuclear detonation that would have
completely changed much of eastern North Carolina.[10] He also said the yield
of each bomb was more than 250 times the destructive power of the Hiroshima
bomb, large enough to create a 100% kill zone within a radius of 8.5 miles
(13.7 km).[14]"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash)

~~~
dfsegoat
Yeah. It literally says right below that portion you pasted that several
authors dispute that claim based on declassified reports of the recovered
weapon:

They point out that:

\- "the arm-ready switch was in the safe position, the high-voltage battery
was not activated (which would preclude the charging of the firing circuit and
neutron generator necessary for detonation)"

\- "the Rotary Safing Switch was destroyed, preventing energisation of the
X-Unit (which controlled the firing capacitors)"

\- "The tritium reservoir used for fusion boosting was also full and had not
been injected into the weapon primary. This would have resulted in a
significantly reduced primary yield and would not have ignited the weapon's
fusion secondary stage"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash#Late...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash#Later_analysis_of_weapons_recovery)

