United States agrees to clean up Palomares, Spain.

In 1966, an American B-52 bomber collided with a tanker during mid-air refueling over the coast of Spain. Its wreckage, including four hydrogen bombs, fell over the Spanish town of Palomares. Thankfully, the bombs did not detonate, and nobody on the ground was injured by the wreckage, but the bombs did rupture allowing radioactivity to leak out in the area.

The primary mission of the cleanup by the United States Military was the recovery of the atomic bombs, which was successful. They cleaned up some of the radioactive soil, but not all of it. There is still a significant amount of land that has been left contaminated, even almost 50 years after the incident. And the people of the town want the area to be cleaned up.

Thankfully, after all of this time, the United States and Spain have agreed to clean up the remaining contaminated land. Which is great news for the people of the area, but it also serves as a reminder for us today. Nuclear weapons and nuclear energy come at the cost of radioactive waste, which can be incredibly deadly, and is almost impossible to clean up. After almost 50 years there is still land that is unsafe to use, and the best cleanup method that is available to get rid of it? Pick up the soil, and bury it somewhere far away from people.

This incident happened under the highly watchful eyes of the United States government, which has taken great care of its nuclear programs to prevent disasters from happening, but accidents do happen, and they can have incredibly serious consequences. It's something else to consider when engaging in nuclear negotiations - if a state wants to acquire nuclear weapons, it needs to be able to take every possible measure to avoid these sorts of accidents.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34569614

Blane Erwin