Finding a definitive solution to the Palomares (Almeria) problem

On January 17, 1966, at the height of the Cold War, a United States bomber and a tanker collided above the small farming village of Palomares, Spain, during a routine midair refuelling.

The explosion killed seven airmen and scattered the bomber’s payload – four unarmed thermonuclear bombs – across miles of coastline.

One bomb fell into the Mediterranean, where the US Navy found it two and a half months later. The other three crashed onto land; two cracked open and dispersed plutonium with the wind.

The contaminated land was partially cleaned, and the United States shipped radioactive dirt and debris to America for disposal.

The Spanish government have now put in an official request to the United States to remove the contaminated land.

The mayor confirmed: “It is necessary that the political commitment that Madrid and Washington signed in 2015 materialises and that means that the contaminated land is removed and with it the stigma of Palomares”.

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