There
are other NUCLEAR DEVICES
National Nuclear Security
Administration officials will gather on Oct. 25, 2011, at the Pantex
plant in Amarillo, Tex., to celebrate the dismantlement of the final
B53 nuclear bomb in the US inventory. The B53 (Mk-53) entered the
stockpile in 1962. About the size of a mini-van and weighing
approximately 10,000 pounds, each had a reported nine-megaton yield.
Here, a worker at the Pantex plant moving a B53, Feb. 14,
2011. October 25, 2011
airforce-magazine,com Last B-53 Nuclear Bomb
Dismantlement: National Nuclear
Security Administration officials on Tuesday will gather at the Pantex
plant in
Amarillo, Tex., to celebrate the dismantlement of the final B53 nuclear
bomb in
the US inventory. NNSA officials said the elimination of the B53 is a
significant step in President Obama's nuclear security agenda that aims
to
reduce the size of the US stockpile. NNSA last October announced
plans to dismantle the B53s, the last of which were retired in 1997.
The B53,
about the size of a mini-van and weighing approximately 10,000 pounds,
entered
the stockpile in 1962. B-47, B-52, and B-58 bombers were able to carry
it. Each
B53 had a reported nine-megaton yield. Last week, NNSA announced
that it completed dismantlement of all W70 tactical nuclear weapons.
Army Lance
missiles carried the W70 during the Cold War. |