List of military nuclear accidents

This article lists notable military accidents involving nuclear material. Civilian accidents are listed at List of civilian nuclear accidents. For a general discussion of both civilian and military accidents, see nuclear and radiation accidents.

Scope of this article

In listing military nuclear accidents, the following criteria have been adopted:

  1. There must be well-attested and substantial health damage, property damage or contamination.
  2. The damage must be related directly to radioactive material, not merely (for example) at a nuclear power plant.
  3. To qualify as "military", the nuclear operation/material must be principally for military purposes.
  4. To qualify as "accident", the damage should not be intentional, unlike in nuclear warfare.

1940s

A sketch of Louis Slotin's criticality accident used to determine exposure of those in the room at the time.

In the above incidents, both Daghlian (August 21, 1945 case) and Slotin (May 21, 1946 case), were working with the same bomb core which became known as the "demon core." It was later melted down and combined with existing weapons-grade material.

1950s

The Castle Bravo fallout pattern.

1960s

SL-1 reactor being removed from the National Reactor Testing Station.
For more details on this topic, see SL-1.

1970s

Baneberry's radioactive plume rises from a shock fissure. Contaminants were carried in three different directions by the wind.

1980s

1990s

2000s

See also

Notes and references

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  5. Levinson-King, Robin (7 November 2016). "Nuclear weapon missing since 1950 'may have been found'". BBC. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
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  7. 1 2 3 HR Lease (March 1986). "DoD Mishaps" (PDF). Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute. Retrieved 2008-12-04.
  8. The Crash of the B-29 on Travis AFB, CA August 5, 1950, Check-six.com.
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  32. 1 2 Walker G. "Criticality Accidents". Trinity Atomic Web Site. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
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  34. Rebecca Grant. The Perils of Chrome Dome, Air Force Magazine, Vol. 94, No. 8, August 2011.
  35. Maggelet, Michael H., and James C. Oskins. Broken Arrow: A Disclosure of Significant U.S., Soviet, and British Nuclear Weapon Incidents and Accidents, 1945-2008. Volume II. Raleigh, NC: Lulu, 2010.
  36. Accident description, Aviation Safety Network.
  37. Richard Halloran (May 26, 1981). "U.S. discloses accidents involving nuclear weapons". The New York Times.
  38. Listing of B-52 crashes since 1957, KSLA News, Channel 12
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  41. "Broken Arrow: Goldsboro, NC". 2000-12-04. Retrieved 2007-06-17.
  42. "Titan I at Beale AFB, California".
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  47. "Nuclear icebreaker Lenin". Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet. www.bellona.org. Retrieved 2013-03-07.
  48. Snider, Laura (2009-05-10). "Looking back on Mother's Day fire at Rocky Flats". Boulder & County News. Boulder Daily Camera. Retrieved 2009-07-26. On Mother's Day in 1969... the worst industrial conflagration the country had ever seen... when Building 776–777 on the Rocky Flats campus eight miles south of Boulder caught fire... Archived May 12, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  49. Greenlee, Robert (2008-04-24). "Rocky Flats Colorado Nuclear Weapons Production Facility 1952–1988" (PDF). ME 360L – Mechanical Engineering Design III. University of New Mexico. Retrieved 2009-07-26. 1969 Fire ... * Most costly industrial accident in US * 2 years to clean up Archived September 29, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
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  62. "Titan Missile Explosion".
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Bibliography

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