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Subject: Interesting News
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2004 12:45:24 EDT
50-Year-Old Lost 'Nuke' May Be Found
United Press International
The U.S. Defense Department sent a team to Georgia to assess the possibility
that a nuclear bomb, missing since 1958, may have been located.
The Air Force lost the bomb following a mid-air collision between a B-47
Stratojet (pictured right) and an F-86 Sabre off the coast of Georgia. The
bomber was severely damaged and the pilot was worried that if he tried to land
with the bomb aboard, the 400 pounds of conventional explosives aboard might
detonate. He jettisoned the bomb in the waters of Wassaw Sound near Tybee
Island, according to the Pentagon.
A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, Derek Duke, has been searching for
the weapon for five years and recently detected unusual radiation readings.
Duke notified the Defense Department. An interagency team took water and soil
samples in the sound on Sept. 30, but it will be several weeks before the tests
reveal whether the bomb has been found.
The Pentagon says there is no danger of a nuclear detonation, but
conventional explosives in the bomb may be unstable.
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