From the Able Archer thread - unrecovered nukes.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

There are seven that I can think of off the top of my head that the US has lost: one off Yokosuka, during the Vietnam era, the Tybee Island nuke, a B47 went missing with four 3.5mt bombs (or maybe it was 4 totaling 3.5mt), a massive 24 MT weapon in South Carolina, in 1952 a B36 dropped it's payload during a training run over the pacific but the conventional detonators blew, probably blasted the (unarmed) core all over the place, so there's nothing to "recover" at any rate, then there was the Scorpion and the Thresher, both of which were nuclear powered and both of which were carrying nuclear torpedoes.

The Russians lost the missile sub that the Glomar Explorer picked up (most of), and there's one off of...Norway? they've lost that's leaking it's nuke torpedoes' contents slowly out, but that's all of theirs I can think of. I shudder to think what might be lying in peat bogs and so forth all across Siberia...

[StainlessSteelCynic]

You know, I don't think the peat bogs are as much of a concern as say storage tunnels (e.g. from quarries and mines). Peat bogs in Siberia would see very little traffic but those old mines had some decent tracks and roads leading to them and it seems they don't really bother to guard them anymore considering what we've seen coming from urban explorers.

[TrailerParkJawa]

I'd be more worried about nuclear waste dumped where it shouldn't be than a bomb. But I have wondered how long until someone finds one of the warheads you mentioned stuck in the mud. Say after a hurricane it just washes up on the beach!

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by TrailerParkJawa

I'd be more worried about nuclear waste dumped where it shouldn't be than a bomb.

The Chelyabinsk incidents were pretty goddamn scary. Thousands of gallons of highly radioactive liquid sitting in ponds outside until one day it just went BOOM in a criticality event.

Then, later, at another "pond" the H20 portion of the liquid eventually evaporated off leaving a dried "mud" of cesium and other lovely isotopes that blew across an enormous area and contaminated it.

On topic: it was all stuff from the Soviet bomb projects.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

You know, I don't think the peat bogs are as much of a concern as say storage tunnels (e.g. from quarries and mines). Peat bogs in Siberia would see very little traffic but those old mines had some decent tracks and roads leading to them and it seems they don't really bother to guard them anymore considering what we've seen coming from urban explorers.

Right, I gotcha but if something was to shift and go boom, given the state of Russian defense networks how long would it take them to realize it was something of theirs rather than us dropping one on them.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by raketenjagdpanzer

Right, I gotcha but if something was to shift and go boom, given the state of Russian defense networks how long would it take them to realize it was something of theirs rather than us dropping one on them.

Ah I see what you were getting at now. With all the stuff they had sitting around and their lacklustre safety record, it could be just a matter of time before something bad happens and as you say, how long would it take them to realize it was the result of their own negligence and not an actual attack?

[Bullet Magnet]

Originally Posted by raketenjagdpanzer

Right, I gotcha but if something was to shift and go boom, given the state of Russian defense networks how long would it take them to realize it was something of theirs rather than us dropping one on them.

That is the first question.
The second question would be: When will they admit it, or will they admit it at all? (As someone once said, "Never let a crisis go to waste")