It's about time we cleaned up that radioactive soil!

peregrina2000 · Oct 22, 2015

Does anyone remember this near disaster? I have to confess it was news to me, sounds like something right out of a thriller novel, but luckily with no disastrous results.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/20/w...re-hydrogen-bombs-accidentally-fell.html?_r=0

Castilian · Oct 22, 2015

I wasn't born when it happened but any educated Spanish knows about it. Specially famous are the photos of the back then Minister of Information and Tourism of Spain bathing with the back then ambassador of the USA in Spain in the beach of Palomares to proof there wasn't any risk for people's health (you can see one of the potos at http://catalogo.artium.org/dossiere...bjetivo/fotografias-con-historia/manuel-fraga)...

More info (in Spanish) can be found at:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidente_de_Palomares
http://www.lavanguardia.com/hemerot...a-bomba-atomica-que-cayo-sobre-palomares.html

And a vid of the NO-DO (if you don't know what was the NO-DO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-Do) of March 14th 1966 showing the bath among other news:

http://www.rtve.es/filmoteca/no-do/not-1210/1474019 (as I said above, the vid includes not just the bath but also other news)

Icacos · Oct 22, 2015

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I had no idea it had ever happened.

Tincatinker · Oct 22, 2015

A few moons, about a dogs life ago, we looked at buying a place in Cumbria (the English Lake District). Things were going well until I enquired about the grazing. The knuckle was "ok for wool but you can't sell the meat"; "why not ?" "Chernobyl". I remain convinced that it had nothing to do with the properties proximity to Windscale / Sellafield or whatever they're calling it this week.

KinkyOne · Oct 23, 2015

Tincatinker said:
A few moons, about a dogs life ago, we looked at buying a place in Cumbria (the English Lake District). Things were going well until I enquired about the grazing. The knuckle was "ok for wool but you can't sell the meat"; "why not ?" "Chernobyl". I remain convinced that it had nothing to do with the properties proximity to Windscale / Sellafield or whatever their calling it this week.

You must be joking, Tincatinker... So many years after Chernobyl? So far away? Is that for real???

Tincatinker · Oct 23, 2015

Post Chernobyl and for many years after there were restrictions on the sale of sheep meat from the hill pastures of Cumbria and Northumberland and other parts of the UK. This from the Guardian in 2009 http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/may/12/farmers-restricted-chernobyl-disaster

I gave up harvesting the local mushrooms too.

Biff · Oct 23, 2015

Tincatinker said:
A few moons, about a dogs life ago, we looked at buying a place in Cumbria (the English Lake District). Things were going well until I enquired about the grazing. The knuckle was "ok for wool but you can't sell the meat"; "why not ?" "Chernobyl". I remain convinced that it had nothing to do with the properties proximity to Windscale / Sellafield or whatever they're calling it this week.

Yes, it did seem strange that the entire fallout from Chernobyl seemed to land in Cumbria, in a semi-circle that centred by Windscale/Sellafield .......

LesBrass · Oct 23, 2015

When I was diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer the first three doctors I saw all said it was due to the fallout from Chernobyl... actually for me it was inherited... but there has been a rise in the incidence of thyroid cancer and certainly in France they seem to blame the Chernobyl accident.

I have no idea... so I'm just passing on hearsay I guess

Anemone del Camino · Oct 23, 2015

Tincatinker said:
Post Chernobyl and for many years after there were restrictions on the sale of sheep meat from the hill pastures of Cumbria and Northumberland and other parts of the UK. This from the Guardian in 2009 http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/may/12/farmers-restricted-chernobyl-disaster

I gave up harvesting the local mushrooms too.

Lived in Ukraine in 1993-94, mushrooms were to be avoid since they are apparenty super at absorbing radiation. Will never forget the "clock" on the store across from the main bus stop in town which shower time, temp, and radiation levels. Just wonderful.

GlenysP · Oct 24, 2015

Castilian said:
I wasn't born when it happened but any educated Spanish knows about it. Specially famous are the photos of the back then Minister of Information and Tourism of Spain bathing with the back then ambassador of the USA in Spain in the beach of Palomares to proof there wasn't any risk for people's health (you can see one of the potos at http://catalogo.artium.org/dossiere...bjetivo/fotografias-con-historia/manuel-fraga)...

More info (in Spanish) can be found at:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incidente_de_Palomares
http://www.lavanguardia.com/hemerot...a-bomba-atomica-que-cayo-sobre-palomares.html

And a vid of the NO-DO (if you don't know what was the NO-DO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-Do) of March 14th 1966 showing the bath among other news:

http://www.rtve.es/filmoteca/no-do/not-1210/1474019 (as I said above, the vid includes not just the bath but also other news)

So what ever happened health wise to the political idiots bathing for a photo shoot!!? LOL

jpflavin1 · Oct 24, 2015

I do not recall the incident but it does seem odd that they would wait 50 years to clean up a hazardous situation. Is there any current data on toxicity of the area?

Jeff Crawley · Oct 24, 2015

Politicians wil do ANYTHING for a soundbite - anybody remember the British Minister for Agriculture John Selwyn Gummer trying to force feed his 4 year old daughter a hamburger on television just as the BSE crisis was about to come to a head?

alansykes · Oct 25, 2015

peregrina2000 said:
Does anyone remember this near disaster? I have to confess it was news to me, sounds like something right out of a thriller novel, but luckily with no disastrous results.

"La duquesa roja" of Medina Sidonia spent time in prison for breaking the censorship about this, and participating in an illegal demonstration protesting about it. She must have been quite somebody - despite holding about the oldest title in Spain, she was an ardent republican who called King Juan Carlos "Señor Borbón" to his face.

Castilian · Oct 25, 2015

jpflavin1 said:
Is there any current data on toxicity of the area?

According to http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2015/10/19/actualidad/1445279485_843032.html, Americium levels are between 5 and 25 Becquerels per gram of soil.

jpflavin1 · Oct 25, 2015

Castilian said:
According to http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2015/10/19/actualidad/1445279485_843032.html, Americium levels are between 5 and 25 Becquerels per gram of soil.

Castilian:

Thanks for the link. I would appreciate any other articles you might discover regarding this topic. Not sure how you forget something like this for fifty years but at least it appears to be being addressed now.

Joe

Biff · Oct 28, 2015

Castilian said:
According to http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2015/10/19/actualidad/1445279485_843032.html, Americium levels are between 5 and 25 Becquerels per gram of soil.

To put this into some kind of context - a typical domesitic smoke detector reportedly contains 37 kBq (37 kilo Becquerels or 1 microCurie) of Americium
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americium). I have three of them at home!!!

'glow-in-the-dark' Biff

Castilian · Oct 28, 2015

jpflavin1 said:
I would appreciate any other articles you might discover regarding this topic.

Do you mean about toxicity in the area?

www.ecologistasenaccion.org/IMG/pdf_Radiactividad_Palomares.pdf
www.elalmeria.es/article/almeria/1832000/nivel/radiacion/es/insignificante/no/existe/ningun/riesgo/palomares.html (it provides some info and quotes some studies that you may try to find by yourself for more info)
http://icta.uba.es/divulgacion/articulos.jsp?id=717&id_idioma=2 (abstract -in English- of an article with info about it)

witsendwv · Aug 8, 2021

peregrina2000 said:
Does anyone remember this near disaster? I have to confess it was news to me, sounds like something right out of a thriller novel, but luckily with no disastrous results.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/20/w...re-hydrogen-bombs-accidentally-fell.html?_r=0

In Jan. 1966 a US B-52 bomber collided with a refueling tanker and exploded killing some crew, some ejected. Two of the the thermonuclear bombs landed and the chemicals exploded causing radiation to escape and contaminate the land near Palomares, Spain although the nuclear part of the bombs remained intact. The area was and still is contaminated after cleanup. The third bomb fell in a dry riverbed and did not explode. The fourth bomb fell into the Mediterranean Sea, and was not located. The search was on, but with no luck, until two searchers sent by the US Navy talked to local fishermen and asked them what they had seen on the day of the crash. The fishermen told where they had seen an object land in the sea. Those two men directed the US Navy to the area where they needed to search and find the bomb. One of those two men (Jon Lindbergh) was a dear friend of ours who passed away suddenly last week, and I still remember him telling me the story two decades ago.

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It's about time we cleaned up that radioactive soil!

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