BOMARC Missile Accident Site

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"1960 Fort Dix IM-99 accident" redirects here. For the main air force base 6 mi (9.7 km) southwest[1]:{{{3}}} of this BOMARC launch complex, see McGuire Air Force Base.

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Missiles near the accident site (not shown), October 1960.

The BOMARC Missile Accident Site[2][3]:{{{3}}} ("BOMARC Site RW-01") is a 75-acre (30 ha)[4]:{{{3}}} fenced-off[1]:{{{3}}} radiological waste site of the United States Air Force Installation Restoration Program contaminated primarily with "weapons-grade plutonium (WGP), highly-enriched and depleted uranium."[5]:{{{3}}} The Cold War nuclear accident occurred at Launcher Shelter 204, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (commonly known as the McGuire Unit at Fort Dix), Burlington County, New Jersey, United States, approximately 16.1 miles (25.9 km) south-southeast of Trenton. Launcher Shelter 204 stored the CIM-10 Bomarc missile (one of fifty-four at the base).[6]

1960 Fort Dix IM-99 accident

"On 7 June 1960, an explosion in a helium tank [between the missile's fuel tanks[7]:{{{3}}}] took place in Shelter 204 causing a fire in a liquid-fueled, nuclear-tipped BOMARC missile. The fire burned uninhibited for about 30 minutes. Firefighting activities, using water as a suppressant, were conducted for 15 hours. As a result, materials from the shelter flowed under the front shelter doors, down the asphalt apron and street between the row of shelters, and into the drainage ditch".[5]:{{{3}}} "Contamination was restricted to an area immediately beneath the weapon and an adjacent elongated area approximately 100 feet long".[8] A nuclear response team from Griffiss Air Force Base found "no trace of dispersed radiation" during spot checks "outside the facility's boundaries" for 66 mi (106 km).[1] Approximately 300 g (11 oz) of WGP was not recovered,[9] "A significant fraction of the radiological material contained in the weapon [was] shipped…to Medina Base, San Antonio TX"[5]:{{{3}}} and then to Amarillo.[10]

According to the Trenton Times, “In June 1987, traces of a radioactive substance used in nuclear warheads (americium-241 related to plutonium) were found about one-half mile from the site."[11] In a 1992 report, the Air Force wrote that the missile launcher from Shelter 204 had been removed from the shelter shortly after the accident, and that no records about the manner of disposal of the missile launcher existed. They found five anomalous areas which could represent the buried launcher.[11] From 1999-2000 the USGS sampled and tested the Kirkwood-Cohansey aquifer with shallow ground water and sediment for radionuclides. No manmade radionuclide was present in the well-bottom sediments, or unfiltered or filtered water samples.[12] From April 2002 through May 27, 2004,[4][13] 21,998 cu yd (16,819 m3) of "contaminated debris and soils were packaged, shipped, and disposed"[14] at Clive, Utah,;[15] the remains of the shelter were removed. In 2005, the contaminated area was estimated as 7 acres[16] and ~60 cu yd (46 m3) were additionally remediated by 2007.[17] The 1972[18] RW-01 perimeter fence with height 6 ft (1.8 m) topped with barbed wire[19] was extended by 2007 to include a larger area on the south.[9]:{{{3}}} A 2013 study compared the characteristics of the accident's particle release with the nuclear warhead dispersals of the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash and 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash.[20]

BOMARC Base No. 1

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For the UHF radio station 1 mi (1.6 km) northeast of the Launch Area and used for BOMARC command guidance, see Ground-to-Air Transmitter Facility.

BOMARC Base No. 1 was the New Jersey missile launch complex of 218 acres (88 ha)[21] within the "Range and Impact Area"[22] at the Northeast corner of Fort Dix.[23]:{{{3}}} The military installation was 1 of 2 Cold War BOMARC bases of the New York Air Defense Sector (cf. Long Island's Suffolk County Missile Annex). The Formerly Used Defense Site was the 1st operational BOMARC base and had both a "Missile Support Area" with a Squadron Operations Center and a "Launch Area" with 56 Mode II Launcher Shelters in 2 flights (e.g., 2 compressor buildings were available to simultaneously get 2 missiles to the "Standby" stage prior to "Fire-up".) [23]:{{{3}}} The missile complex was an annex of McGuire Air Force Base 6 mi (9.7 km) to the west where the sector's SAGE Direction Center (DC-01) was the missile launch control center. By 1955 the base was planned for January 1960 operations as the 1st BOMARC site[24]:{{{3}}} (construction began January 1958),[25] and it became operational on 1 September 1959 with 3 IM-99A missiles (24 by 1 January).[26]:{{{3}}} In December 1959, Col. Robert E. Stuart was the base commander, the 46th Air Defense Missile Squadron (BOMARC) commander was Lt. Col. Ernest B. Sheppard, and the Boeing support office was in New Egypt.[23]:{{{3}}}

External images
image icon 1960 damage to Launcher Shelter 204
image icon 21st century photos of shelter damage
image icon various facility photos

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (quotation from webpage's image of a 1960 Augusta Chronicle article). "the fire was one of the largest environmental disasters in the environmentally sensitive Pinelands, which did not become federally protected until 1978" (quotation from the webpage's transcription of a 2010 Burlington County Times' article).
  8. ↑ quotation from http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/operation_and_plans/NuclearChemicalBiologicalMatters/21.pdf similar to 1981 DoD statemtent
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 http://www.hps1.org/aahp/public/AAHP_Special_Sessions/2008_Pittsburgh/Nuclear%20Weapons%20Accidents%20-%20Leasons%20Learned.pdf
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Duratek 2006, cited by Rademacher
  15. ↑ http://amcadminrec.com/pdfs/mcguire2/AR-1163.pdf
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ http://www.wmsym.org/archives/2009/pdfs/9479.pdf
  18. ↑ http://amcadminrec.com/pdfs/mcguire2/AR-1405.pdf
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ New York Times: "News accounts of the accident, which occurred on June 7, 1960, reported that a Bomarc missile burned on its pad at the 218-acre 46th Air Defense Missile Squadron base in Jackson Township, sending an orange-yellow cloud into the air and spreading a small amount of radioactive material around the 40-by-50-foot silo. [sic]"
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Preface by Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. In the last six months of 1959, two IM-99A squadrons became operational and assumed an air defense role. The first…was the 46th Air Defense Missile Squadron (BOMARC) based at McGuire AFB, New Jersey…activated on 1 January 1959…operational on 1 September 1959 with three missiles.
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