The US is offering technical assistance to Spain to clean up land contaminated by radiation from undetonated nuclear bombs that accidentally fell on the area in 1966, the US Department of State announced on Saturday.
The Spanish and US governments have not yet reached an agreement on the cleanup.
At the request of the Spanish government, a US technical team led by the US Department of Energy traveled to the southeastern Spanish town of Palomares in February last year to offer advice for the remediation plan.
“No final decision has been reached regarding cleanup of the site,” the Department of State said in a statement on its Web site.
On Jan. 17, 1966, a US B-52 bomber carrying four nuclear bombs collided with a KC-135 tanker during mid-air refueling off the coast of Spain.
In addition to killing seven of the crew members on the airplanes, three hydrogen bombs fell to the ground near Palomares and one fell into the Mediterranean Sea.
The non-nuclear explosives on two of the bombs that hit the ground detonated, spreading 3.175kg of plutonium over a 200 hectare area. The bomb that fell into the sea was recovered intact after a search by the US Navy.
“In 1966, we worked closely with Spain to remediate the accident site and have collaborated with Spanish authorities for more than 40 years to monitor the site and the health of local inhabitants,” the Department of State statement said.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo spoke with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton about the remediation last week during the Munich Security Conference in Germany, according to the Spanish newspaper the Herald of Aragon.
Clinton is “personally committed” to resolving the contamination issue, Garcia-Margallo told the Spanish news media.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the