US Dropped Four H-Bombs On Spain In 1966 – Nearly 50 Years Later Washington Has Finally Agreed To Clean Up The Radioactive Contamination

The Costa del Armageddon: How the US dropped H-bombs on a beach in Spain… and turned its back on hundreds of British expats who have been caught in the deadly nuclear fall-out zone (Daily Mail, May 10, 2014)

US to clean up Spanish radioactive site 49 years after plane crash (Guardian, Oct 19, 2015):

Nearly 50 years after a US air force B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons crashed in Palomares in south-east Spain, Washington has finally agreed to clean up the radioactive contamination that resulted from the crash.

’66 H-bomb accident still a concern in Spain (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov 29, 2003):

PALOMARES, Spain — Almost 40 years have passed since the U.S. Air Force accidentally dropped four hydrogen bombs on Spain. But the fallout continues with a newly published scientific study that traced the spread of radiation from the accident site — and continuing rumors about a mysterious fifth bomb that supposedly is still leaking on the Mediterranean Sea floor.

Spain and U.S. Sign Agreement on Palomares H-Bomb Cleanup (Wall Street Journal, Oct 19, 2015):

Four hydrogen bombs fell on southern Spain in 1966 after a midair collision

Three of the bombs fell on land and one in the sea. None exploded, but two detonators went off, spilling about 7 pounds of plutonium 239 across the coastal landscape in the Spanish province of Almeria.

Shortly after the accident, the U.S. shipped about 1,600 tons of contaminated earth to a facility in South Carolina. The Spanish government, then led by the dictator Francisco Franco, played down the threat of lingering danger. His minister of tourism took a well-publicized swim in the sea with the U.S. ambassador to try to show the waters were safe.

Tests in the 1990s revealed that 50,000 cubic meters of earth were still contaminated. In 2003, the Spanish government took possession of that land and fenced it off to prevent the construction of vacation homes.

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