The United States and Spain have reached an agreement following nuclear bombs belonging to the U.S. falling in close to the Spanish village of Palomares, according to AFP.
On Jan. 17, 1966, a U.S. B-52 bomber that had four nuclear bombs hit a tanker plane off the coast of Spain while mid-air refuelling. This caused two thermonuclear bombs to drop near Palomares. The bombs did not detonate, but they broke apart spreading seven pounds of plutonium over a 200 hectare (490 acre) area, according to AFP. The incident killed seven of the 11 crew members, according to the Guardian.
Secretary of State John Kerry met with Spanish foreign minister José Manuel García-Margallo in Madrid. They agreed to "store the contaminated earth at a suitable location in the United States," according to the Guardian. Spanish media said the soil would be transported to a site in Nevada, according to BBC News. Previously the United States shipped 1,700 tons of the contaminated soil to South Carolina and the event was largely forgotten. After the soil was tested in the 1990s revealing that 50,000 cubic meters of land was still contaminated, concerns over the matter grew.
This compromise was made almost 50 years after the incident, which was a result of the Cold War.The health of the citizens of Palomares is being monitored at this time.
