Under the Sea

There are 92 known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea. I know that’s a bit much to digest but consider the key word here being “known” and it gets worse. Consider how many unknown nuclear bombs could be lost at sea. And what would happen if any of them somehow went off….

I did some research. Nuclear weapons have been used twice in warfare, both by the United States, at the end of WWII against Japan. On 6 August 1945, a uranium gun-type fission bomb code-named “Little Boy" was detonated over the city of Hiroshima. Three days later, on 9 August, a plutonium implosion-type fission bomb code-named "Fat Man” was exploded over Nagasaki, Japan. These two bombings resulted in the deaths of approximately 200,000 people – mostly civilians – from acute injuries sustained from the explosions. Since then, nuclear bombs have been detonated on over 2,000 occasions, for testing or demonstrations.

The Federation of American Scientists estimates there are more than 17,000 nuclear warheads in the world as of 2012, with around 4,300 of them being considered “operational” (ready for use). That of course doesn’t include the 92 known cases lost at sea. Just another “fun” fact for Friday!