Almost 50 years after four
nuclear bombs cut down on the Spanish coast following 2 US military planes
collided, American officials have signed a deal to clean up infected land.
None of the bombs
detonated in January 1966, but 3 fell around Palomares and a 4th was found on
the sea bed.
Highly toxic plutonium was
reach over a 200-hectare (490-acre) area.
On a visit to Madrid,
Secretary of State John Kerry decided to finalize a deal on disposing of infected
soil.
Under the contract in
principle, signed by Mr. Kerry and Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel
Garcia-Margallo, the US will eliminate the soil at Palomares to a site in the
US.
Spanish media said the
soil would be transported to a site in Nevada. The contract comes a few months
before the 50th anniversary of the crash, one of the most serious nuclear
incidents of the Cold battle.
An earlier consignment of infected
soil was shipped to a site in South Carolina soon after the mishap and hidden
in deep trenches.
But further analysis of
soil in the area has been carried out in current years, and the health of
residents in the Palomares area is still being monitored.
On 17 January 1966, a US
B-52 bomber transport four 1.5 megaton bombs collided with a refueling tanker
some 31,000 feet above Palomares on Spain's Mediterranean coast
The tanker team and 3
people on board the bomber were killed
One bomb equipped with a
parachute landed intact
2 bombs hit the ground at
high speed, spreading plutonium
A 4th bomb landed 5 miles
off shore and was later improved by USS Petrel
"I looked up and saw
this giant ball of fire, falling through the sky" - Spain waits for
US to come to an end nuclear clean-up