Catholic Online: Both bombs carried a payload of four megatons, which is the equivalent of four million tons of TNT explosive. Had the device detonated, fallout could have been deposited over Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and as far north as New York City. The incident would have killed untold Americans.
The U.S. government has publicly denied that its nuclear arsenal has ever put Americans’ lives in jeopardy through safety flaws. However, in the newly-published document, a senior engineer in the Sandia national laboratories responsible for the mechanical safety of nuclear weapons concludes that “one simple, dynamo-technology, low voltage switch stood between the United States and a major catastrophe.” Read more here.
