page_title: Mark 17 nuclear bomb
section_title: 1957 incident
hierarchical_section_title: Mark 17 nuclear bomb / 1957 incident
caption_attribution_description: Mark 17 nuclear bomb next to a Convair RB-36H Peacemaker at the Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California.
context_page_description: The Mark 17 and Mark 24 were the first mass-produced hydrogen bombs deployed by the United States. The two differed in their "primary" stages. They entered service in 1954, and were phased out by 1957.
context_section_description: On May 27, 1957 a Mark 17 was unintentionally jettisoned from a B-36 just south of Albuquerque, New Mexico's Kirtland AFB. The device fell through the closed bomb bay doors of the bomber, which was approaching Kirtland at an altitude of 520 metres (1,700 ft). The device's conventional explosives destroyed it on impact, leaving a crater 7.6 metres (25 ft) in diameter and 3.7 metres (12 ft) deep. Though a chain reaction was impossible because the plutonium pits were stored separately on the plane as a safety measure, the incident spread radioactive contamination and debris over a mile-wide area. The military thoroughly cleaned up and decontaminated the site although a few fragments of the bomb - some still radioactive - are occasionally found in the area. A marker was placed on the site in 1996 by the Center for Land Use Interpretation, however it was subsequently removed.
caption: A Mark 17 on display at the Castle Air Museum
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