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IN FEBRUARY 1958, A B-47 CARRYing a nuclear weapon collided with an F-86 fighter plane during a training mission near Savannah, Georgia. Before making an emerency landing, the B-47 jettisoned its bomb near the mouth of the Savannah River. Shortly after the accident, the air force stated that the weapon was not "nuclear capable" and abandoned attempts to recover it.
In 1994, the Defense Department declassified documents related to the accident. One of the documents, a 11 sanitized copy" of a 1966 report about lost nuclear weapons, raised new...