SRP webinar: The Palomares Accident – 60 years later

The Palomares accident occurred on 17 January 1966, when two US military planes, a B-52 bomber and a KC-135 tanker aircraft, collided in the process of a midair refuelling operation above the town of Palomares, in the southeast of Spain on the Mediterranean coast. Both aircrafts were destroyed in the air. Four thermonuclear weapons, 11 men (four survived), and hundreds of tons of debris fell to earth in and around the town. Two weapons landed without incident, and both were recovered undamaged. But the parachutes of the other two weapons failed to deploy, and the high explosives in these last two weapons detonated and burned, causing some of the plutonium inside to also burn spreading plutonium contamination throughout the area. Plutonium particulate contamination was distributed in varying degrees over a 2.26 km² area including the northern edge of the village, farmlands and non-cultivated terrain.

The seminar will describe the accident and the recovery operations, with the initial land decontamination, and the long-term follow-up with a Radiological Surveillance Programme (RSP), including the affected population. It will also present the more recent characterization of the contamination distribution, the currently condemned areas and plans for a total restoration of the affected sites, with the adopted radiological criteria. The interaction with the affected communities, the local and regional authorities, as well as with other stakeholders are also commented.