WHERE ARE ALL THE "LOST NUKES?"

Some readers may wonder what I’m talking about when I use the phrase, “lost nukes” or “loose nukes.” For some readers, this will be the first time they have heard those expressions. But I’m old enough to remember when this was a very real issue the world worried about. How many nuclear weapons went unaccounted for in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union? Despite investigations and searches, the answer to that question was never satisfactorily answered. When the Soviet Union fell apart it could no longer pay its army and its scientists so those groups had every reason to sell Soviet nuclear weapons to various nations and entities so that they could support themselves and their families. We’ll get to that in a moment, but first lets discuss the nukes the US military accidentally dropped on the USA itself.

In 1961, the USAF dropped two nuclear bombs on North Carolina when the bomber that was carrying them fell apart in flight (second link). In 1958, the USAF had previously dropped a nuclear bomb near Tybee Island in the Savannah, Georgia region. Despite searches, the nuclear bomb was never found (third link). That accident was due to a fighter plane and a bomber colliding in mid air.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, very distressing information eventually went public. On an episode of 60 Minutes on CBS News in 1997, a former high-ranking official of the Russian government, National Security Advisor, Alexandre Lebed, informed the world that when the Soviet Union fell apart, approximately “100 suitcase bombs” went unaccounted for (first link). There was a flurry of media coverage of this story about missing “suitcase bombs” (describing their small size) which each held a nuclear weapon of circa 1 kiloton. These bombs were made by the Soviet Union which apparently lost control of them in the chaotic aftermath of the Soviet Union’s fall. Subsequent investigations came to varying conclusions. One said 84 suitcase nukes went missing while other later investigations found that either 48 or 84 of these small nuclear weapons were missing.

The fourth link reports on a source which asserts that “up to 50” nuclear weapons were lost by the combined American and Russian militaries. Presumably, that total does not include any of the suitcase nukes, but rather much larger nuclear bombs. It reports the USA has admitted that it has lost 11 nuclear bombs. Such bombs were lost in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, in Greenland and on US soil as earlier links reported. The fifth link reports on Russia losing nuclear weapons in the Barents Sea and the IAEA (the international nuclear monitoring agency) asserted that it knew about “over 100 nuclear smuggling incidents.” That last phrase could mean H- or A-bombs, suitcase nukes, enriched uranium, etc. Oh yes. The link also reports that the Russians finally declared they hadn’t lost any of the suitcase nuclear weapons. That is so reassuring. We know Russia would never release false information as part of a disinformation campaign, would it? The sixth link admits that thieves have taken small amounts of nuclear-capable uranium and plutonium but no nuclear weapon has ever been lost, sold or smuggled. If you believe that, you may be a candidate to buy some lovely ocean-side land in Nebraska.

The seventh link offers details of a crash which caused a US bomber to lose four nuclear weapons over Spanish territory, and the eighth link details the loss of a B-52 bomber with four nuclear bombs in a crash over Greenland. Despite much searching, it reports one nuclear bomb was never found.

So, official and personal accounts about lost nukes differ. However, I find it credible to believe that any number of suitcase nukes could have been sold by ex-Soviet generals and scientists who suddenly had no pay checks when the Soviet Union fell, but these people still needed immediate cash to feed themselves and their families. Nations that needed and wanted nuclear weapons could have made such people fabulous offers of money to sell suitcase nuclear weapons on a large or small scale. Indeed, this situation would have been a very credible plot for a James Bond movie.

Another thing needs to be considered. The above links discuss various nuclear bomb losses which were publicly known and reported on by the world media. How many nukes have been lost or stolen about which we have heard nothing? Given the nuclear non-proliferation pact, a nation with extra nukes could also arrange to “lose” a few nukes so they would enter the inventory of non-nuclear nations which needed such weapons to use against nuclear-armed neighboring nations. Terrorists would love to get ahold of suitcase nukes. It is also unclear how long a “suitcase nuke” remains viable. Even if suitcase nukes’ internal controls and triggering mechanisms have deteriorated, the nuclear material inside them would likely still be usable for placement in a new weapon or for use in a nuclear “dirty bomb.”

We do not know if nations or terrorists will detonate actual “lost” nukes or release dirty bomb contraptions, but either option is possible. It may also be possible for deep-diving submersibles to look for and recover nuclear weapons that have been lost in the oceans. Submerged nukes would have metal casings and they would emit radiation. A manned or unmanned submersible with ultra-sensitive metal- and radiation-detecting equipment could likely find a long-lost nuclear weapon if the recovery team knew the area where a nuclear weapon became lost at sea.

Matthew 24:6 says “wars and rumors of wars” will characterize the latter days of our age. That is certainly true already. However, we may have wars in the future where nuclear weapons are used and no one knows who used them or where they obtained them. It is just one more possible danger which our age now faces.

WHERE ARE ALL THE “LOST NUKES?”

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