U.S. Agrees to Further Nuclear Cleanup in Spain 50 Years after B-52 Crash

The U.S. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Spain to help the country clean up plutonium, uranium, and americium that was spread across at least 24 acres along its southern coast after a B-52 carrying nuclear cargo for U.S. Strategic Air Command crashed in the Mediterranean city of Palomares in 1966. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he signed the MOU with Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo yesterday in Madrid. “We have to build on today’s signing to take further action to resolve, once and for all, this very important issue,” Kerry said in a statement yesterday. “Over the past 50 years, we have worked together to secure the area, to remove contaminated soil, and to decontaminate land and to ensure public health and the safety of the people. And that work will continue.”

 

The B-52 was carrying four nuclear gravity bombs. None exploded, but high explosives on two bombs detonated on impact, one landed fairly intact, and the fourth landed in the Mediterranean Sea and was recovered by the U.S. military months later. After initial remediation in the weeks following the incident, contaminated soil was put in barrels, and was shipped to and buried at Savannah River Site, but it is uncertain whether future Palomeros waste will be sent to the same place. The State Department yesterday referred questions about the MOU to the National Nuclear Security Administration.

In 2001, Spain’s Center for Energy and Environment Investigation detected higher levels of plutonium, uranium, and americium than average over 24 acres of Palomares.