Accidents are legion. In 1961, for example, a B-52 in the skies above North Carolina developed a fuel leak. The crew ejected from the ailing aircraft, leaving it and its payload to plummet to the ground. In the process, a live hydrogen bomb’s safety switch flicked to “armed” as it crashed into a field. Of its four safety mechanisms, just one was left in place, and an explosion was miraculously avoided. In 2003 the British Ministry of Defence disclosed more than 110 near misses and accidents in the history of its nuclear weapons program. Even the Kremlin, hardly a model of openness, has
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