Скачать или смотреть How America Nearly Detonated Itself in 1961 | The Goldsboro Nuclear Accident

In January 1961, a routine Cold War airborne alert mission nearly ended in nuclear catastrophe when a U.S. strategic bomber broke apart over North Carolina, releasing two hydrogen bombs whose arming sequences progressed alarmingly close to full detonation. For decades, the true danger of the Goldsboro accident remained hidden behind classification and reassurance, masking how narrowly disaster was avoided.
This documentary reconstructs the incident in strict chronological order, examining the technical failures, recovery operations, and internal assessments that revealed how five of six safety mechanisms failed on one weapon, leaving a single switch to prevent a nuclear explosion on American soil. It explores how Cold War deterrence prioritized constant readiness over accident resilience, how secrecy shaped public understanding, and how Goldsboro exposed the fragile margin separating control from catastrophe. Far from an anomaly, the accident reveals the everyday risks embedded in nuclear deterrence and the quiet systems of risk management that sustained the Cold War without guaranteeing safety.
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