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One switch stopped North Carolina from being erased. ☢️
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Science Gone WrongAug 01, 2026

One switch stopped North Carolina from being erased. ☢️

One switch stopped North Carolina from being erased. ☢️ . . . On January 24, 1961, a B-52 disintegrated over Goldsboro and dropped two 3.8-megaton hydrogen bombs onto a tobacco field. One armed itself through five of six stages. A single low-voltage safety switch held. Declassified in 2013: the bomb was 260 times Hiroshima. Fragments of its uranium core are still buried in the field.

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The Guardian, 2013, 'US nearly detonated atomic bomb over North Carolina – secret document', Eric Schlosser reporting on declassified Sandia Labs document

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