There is something of an urban myth that when it came time for German reunification the US army went to its various arms caches in W. Germany and in some of those holds there were suitcase nuclear devices that had gone walking. I have never been able to confirm this ANYWHERE so I would classify it under tall tales of woe but more than one person from Europe over the years has brought it up in conversation. Though no one knows where the info/story came from originally.

Ok lets get down to the nitty gritty. Delete mislaying nuclear material...insert, oops, I seem to have lost another nuclear bomb.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/09/13/lost.bomb/
http://www.cdi.org/Issues/NukeAccidents/accidents.htm
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07302005.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/081300-01.htm

And these are the sources you asked for.

Originally Posted by Welshwarrior

Ok lets get down to the nitty gritty cowboy. Delete mislaying nuclear material...insert, oops, I seem to have lost another nuclear bomb.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/09/13/lost.bomb/
I wouldn't worry much about a Russian trawler picking this baby up.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Government experts are investigating a claim that an unarmed nuclear bomb, lost off the Georgia coast at the height of the Cold War, might have been found, an Air Force spokesman said Monday.

http://www.cdi.org/Issues/NukeAccidents/accidents.htm
Seems to suppose a lot but I still don't see any getting into a foreign nuke.

"Even the updated estimate does not tell the entire story, for no additional list of nuclear weapon accidents acknowledged by the Pentagon has been released since 1980. Moreover, the list included only those instances that were judged severe enough to fit the Pentagon's conservative definition of a nuclear weapon "accident." Many more mishaps which could have been catastrophic were excluded as "nuclear weapons incidents."

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn07302005.html
CounterPunch Diary

Lost Nuclear Warheads from a B-52 Now in Iran?

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
Iran may have the weapons-grade uranium out of three nuclear warheads dumped out of a B-52 back in 1991. Or so at least the US government might have some reason to believe, according to a [seemingly well-informed person talking to CounterPunch last week.]

Darn those seemingly well-informed persons, they're everywhere.


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/081300-01.htm

"COPENHAGEN - A long lost U.S. nuclear bomb probably lies on the seabed off Greenland near Thule airbase, which the United States wants to use for its controversial anti-missile shield, a Danish newspaper reported on Sunday.
Classified documents obtained by a group of former workers at Thule, an Arctic air and radar base built by the United States in 1951-52, suggest that one of four hydrogen bombs on a B-52 bomber that crashed there in 1968 was never found, the daily Jyllands-Posten said."

If it was never found, I guess it wouln't be just rolling around on the top of the ground. 1951-1952, I don't think much could be gained from salvaging this one.

Originally Posted by Welshwarrior

And these are the sources you asked for.

You're right about the USA losing warheads but in almost every case since 1951, they have been monitored or located. These aren't being swapped for camels in the Middle East. You will be able to "Google" up pretty much anything you want to read these days, especially if it has an anti American slant.

Your statement; Russians handling radioactive material is about like giving a loaded pistol to a Chimpanzee. Now, it's all over the former Republic, I am more worried about a country that loses atomic weapons on what seems to be a regular basis.

So, you don't see any problem with yellowcake being left in the countries that made up the Soviet Union when it collapsed? Some of these small countries are poor and have no reason to store fresh, usable weapons grade uranium that can be sold for a good price to anyone with money. The fact that this material is in containers in many countries waiting for buyers is much more preferable than trying to retrieve bombs from the 1950s under miles of ocean, assuming they can even be located at all. Would you rather go to Belarus and load containers of material or spend millions of dollars diving and searching the ocean floor? That's what I see as strange in your reasoning.

I do see a problem with it. But you must also understand that if you are going to have a pop at another nations handling of nuclear materials then you had better be squeaky clean yourself. I think you might also need to read the URLS I posted earlier, there a number of devices that have been lost since the 50's and still not located.

Originally Posted by Welshwarrior

I do see a problem with it. But you must also understand that if you are going to have a pop at another nations handling of nuclear materials then you had better be squeaky clean yourself. I think you might also need to read the URLS I posted earlier, there a number of devices that have been lost since the 50's and still not located.

How much Nuclear Physics have you studied and understood. I will give some credence to your claims against America when you demonstrate at least a peert amount of what you are talking about. By the way, Physics was my minor.

If you look at the post of the interview with the Uzbek terrorist on trial in Uzbekistan he clearly states that Osama et al are already in possession of at least the raw materials, ie yellow cake for constructing a nuclear device. It is also been made very clear that there are former soviet nuclear scientists in his employ. He received official clearance from a Saudi cleric in 2003 to use nuclear weapons against the US. It is not an "if" folks, this is a "when" question. And it is also a question of how many unless someone/thing steps up to the plate and cuts off the source. One being the former soviet republics, not the US's 50 year old warhead rusting away at the bottom of the Atlantic.

Were one to wander into this Chechen factory you could scoop up a wheelbarrow worth of waste and with simple explosives make a dirty bomb with as much ease as one were constructing a pipe bomb from matchsticks. If ever there was a case for international intervention this is one I would argue in favour of acting upon.

The patient, determined and meticulous enemies of the west planning and building and implementing a nightmare while the western governments bicker and fight much like the members of this forum.

Originally Posted by Missileer

How much Nuclear Physics have you studied and understood. I will give some credence to your claims against America when you demonstrate at least a peert amount of what you are talking about. By the way, Physics was my minor.

You are a strange fish missileer, so you have to have a degree in Nuclear Physics to comment on the USA's tardiness when it comes to losing bombs . I did woodwork at school! Does that qualify me to comment about the destruction of the rainforests? I have cut and pasted this your answer onto another military web site, just to cheer the troops up, I know you won't mind.

Who knows where the thing is, for all we know it could be sitting in a museum somewhere.