The Mushroom Farm By Joseph Cleveland Brown, III U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (Fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, (Retired Civil Works Project Engineer, (Retired) CONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1: Einstein’s Legacy. Chapter 2: The Stars of Nuclear Physics. Chapter 3: Nuclear Energy Explained. Chapter 4: Our Race for the Bomb. Chapter 5: Our Bombs. Chapter 6: The Weapon Delivery Systems. Chapter 7: Our Nuclear Warheads. Chapter 8: Our Missiles. Chapter 9: Our Nuclear Powered Navy. Chapter 10: The Anatomy of a Nuclear Explosion. Chapter 11: U. S. Military Nuclear Safety record! Chapter 12: The Cuban Missile Crisis! Chapter 13: Our Testing. Chapter 14: Our Atomic Power Generation versus the World. Chapter 15: Our Planned Nuclear Waste Repository. Chapter 16: Our Cost so far. Chapter 17: How to prepare for the future. Glossary References and Sources Introduction OOPS! In 2007 I watched a one hour documentary on TV. I was shocked to learn that our government, Yes, You guessed it, the same government that looses all of our money in the Stock Market and Mortgage Market and puts space shuttles up, launches missiles that attack and kill other missiles and builds Nuclear Submarines so sophisticated that they are impossible to detect underwater has lost a Hydrogen Bomb close to a major American city and can’t find it! And as a middle manager in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers for over 30 years I was never officially informed of this fact! I had to learn of this disturbing event on TV! It was on The Discovery Channel one day and titled, “America’s Lost H- Bomb” and was indeed an eye opener. The title alone got my full attention as I was expecting a show about how we had lost a nuclear device somewhere in the deep oceans of the world. I was surprised to learn that there was a One Megaton Thermonuclear Bomb buried in the mud somewhere near Tybee Island Georgia right here in the good old U. S. of A.! I was further alarmed by the revelation brought out in the show that the weapon went missing in 1958 and has yet to be found. (I sincerely hope someone who wants to do the U. S. harm has not already found it)! The federal agencies looking for it know what it looks like, (12 feet long, weighing 7,600 pounds), they know at what altitude and airspeed the B-47 dropped it from, ( 7,200 feet and 200 knots) and they even know that it was serial number “47782” and had an explosive yield of One Megaton. I spent many years of my adult life and career in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers an not once have I seen an official document mentioning this lost H-bomb! I can only conclude therefore that it was kept secret from the general public and some government agencies until recently. So, if I lived on Tybee Island Georgia I would move at least 500 miles away because there is a 1 Megaton Thermonuclear Bomb sitting in the mud offshore, in the vicinity of Wassaw Sound that may or may not be armed, and is exposed to the corrosive elements contained in the mud and surrounding sea water. The Government says it is safe but can we believe them? I would not stake my family’s life on the assurance of the government knowing their track record in promulgating misinformation. I have in my files a copy of the Official Air Force report dated 12APRIL2001 that says, “The Mark 15 bomb was produced in two versions; the Mod 0 and Mod 2. The Mod 2 version of this bomb type replaced the removable nuclear capsule of the Mod 0 with a non-removable nuclear capsule, thus making the Mod 2 version a self-contained fully functional nuclear bomb”. It goes on to say in the next paragraph, “Concern has been raised as to which version of the bomb was used”. The U. S. A. F. & Department of Energy both concluded that the bomb was a Mod 0, based on the following unsubstantiated investigative conclusions: • Maintenance records for this specific bomb indicate the only maintenance activity during which the Mod 0 to Mod 2 conversion might have been completed took place in July 1956. • Atomic Energy Commission production records indicate Mod 2 conversion kits were not ready until December 1957. • AEC production records indicate Mod 0 to Mod 2 conversions did not begin until March 1958. • As the accident occurred in February 1958, the evidence is inconclusive that the bomb involved was a Mod 0. • Testimony before congressional investigating committees in the aftermath of the “Tybee Incident” left more doubt about the weapon being armed or not and no conclusive evidence was offered as to which version of the bomb was lost! Chilling, isn’t it? Statements like, “conversion might have been completed,” or “the evidence is inconclusive that the bomb involved was a Mod 0!” I don’t know about you but might and inconclusive are not words I want to see in a report dealing with a lost 1 megaton thermonuclear bomb that is sitting in the mud off of a city that has over 300,000 inhabitants in its’ metro area. Savannah Georgia is a vital city in the Southeastern U. S. and is home to Fort Stewart, Hunter Army Bases not to mention Marine Corps Recruit Depot Paris Island just to the northeast . It occurs to me that maybe the U. S. government is and has been hoping this incident will go away and that the bomb will just deteriorate into the mud. With the shadow of nuclear annihilation perched on the doorstep of Tybee Island Georgia I sure hope the bomb that is there doesn’t just decide to go off some day (triggered by a random lightening strike) and give us all a dose of reality we are not ready for, or worse yet, some nefarious salvage firm recovers it and sells it to one of our enemies, foreign or domestic. In this age of uncertainty I fear the possibility of the Islamic Extremists and other types of domestic terrorists getting their hands on a suitcase sized nuke. (They exist and are very easy to use)! A suitcase sized nuke may not have enough power to level a large city but it could render Wall Street financial markets a fond memory if our government doesn’t destroy them first. I know in my heart that there are many groups of disaffected U. S. citizens who belong to radical left and right wing groups who would not hesitate to use a nuke to get their point across. I have studied these home grown groups in my years in the military intelligence training I have had and I attended a two week seminar once that was absolutely chilling. The topic was “Domestic Sects, Cults and Deviant Movements”. It was an two week course and I could not sleep well for quite a few weeks after attending it because I had learned just how many groups there are right here living among us that are enemies of the state for whatever misguided reasons they have. Not to mention the religious nut cases halfway around the world who live in a doomsday theology such as radical Islam. I decided right at that moment to write the definitive work on United States Nuclear History without sugar coating it so anyone could have a reference at their disposal to find the historical facts on Nuclear power generation, weapons, technology and the Government organizations that regulate Nuclear energy in this nation. Let me point out that I am no raving anti nuke person nor would anyone who knows me call me a liberal. I am a self described Conservative Libertarian and as patriotic as any American can be when it comes to the defense of my country. I adhere to the Theodore Roosevelt philosophy of, “Talk softly and carry a BIG stick”! That being said, I cannot explain why the United States has ten times more nuclear warheads and bombs than it has means to deliver them. The only plausible answer is like the old frontier scouts used to say “You can’t carry enough bullets in hostile Indian territory when you need them”! Nuclear weapons are not like your typical conventional ammunition. You don’t drop nuclear weapons every day on a city or military facility until you destroy it! It only takes one of sufficient size to do the trick! So, I ask myself. Why do we have so many nuclear bombs? Whatever the reason he has President George Bush will be remembered in history as the Commander in Chief who trimmed our Nuclear Arsenal to a manageable level by ordering the systematic dismantling and storage of thousands of obsolete nuclear weapons and the lethal components they are made from. (This fact is not widely published in the media for obvious reasons). The President thinks this is best for us and I agree that we must do this. We only have enough ships, submarines, aircraft and missiles to deliver 500 to 600 warheads at one time (in an all out combined forces effort of ship/submarine launched, silo launched and aircraft launched weapons). If Iran carries out their threats and does launch a nuke into Israel it will only take 2 medium sized weapons to destroy Israel but it will take 11 warheads to completely destroy Iran. The Israelis have an ample supply of nuclear warheads and delivery systems to accomplish this task.