Palomares is an agricultural, fishing and tourist village on the Mediterranean Sea in the Almería province of Andalucia, Spain. It is about 20 metres (66 feet) above sea level. The village falls within the municipality of Cuevas del Almanzora.
The ruins of El Artial lie just outside the village.
1966 B-52 crash
The town is noted for an incident in 1966 in which a B-52 Stratofortress of the Strategic Air Command crashed, causing radioactive contamination after its payload of four hydrogen bombs was dispersed. There were four thermonuclear bombs in the bomber. The high-explosive igniters in two bombs detonated on impact, spreading radioactive material, including deadly plutonium-239, over a wide area of the Spanish countryside. The third H-bomb landed via parachute into a stream, where it was relatively intact and was recovered. The fourth H-bomb landed in the Mediterranean Sea, and U.S. Navy searchers took three months to find and recover the device intact. A large amount of contaminated Spanish soil was soon removed, packed up, and shipped across the Atlantic for burial near Barnwell, South Carolina, the site of a large installation of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
In 2001, Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT) still detected measurable levels of plutonium, uranium, and americium over 10 hectares (24 acres) of Palomares.[1]
Annual monitoring by American and Spanish researchers has found no evidence of health problems, or of any contaminated food or water from the crash. Nevertheless, some areas remain contaminated and cannot be disturbed. Although they are safely fenced off, the result is that the region is emotionally blighted, and it has missed out on developments like those in most other coastal towns. On 19 October 2015, Spain and the United States signed an agreement to discuss further cleanup of the site. Eventually, the United States intends to take more contaminated soil from Palomares to a safe burial site in the United States.[2]
References
- ^ "Spain, U.S. Agree to Radioactivity Cleanup 40 Years After Atomic Accident." Fox News, 8 October 2006. Retrieved: 23 September 2007.
- ^ "Spain, US sign new accord to study further cleanup work after 1966 nuclear accident". US News. AP. 19 October 2015. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
37°14′55″N 1°47′45″W / 37.24861°N 1.79583°W
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