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On 17 January 1966, a US air force B-52 plane carrying four 1.5-megatonne nuclear bombs crashed in mid-air with a refuelling plane over Palomares, Almería in Spain.

 

Seven of the 11 crew members were killed and three of the nuclear explosives fell to Earth. Two of them exploded and released radioactive debris, while the last bomb landed in the sea. After an intense and tense search during which local authorities tried to placate the local fishing community and tourists that the area was perfectly safe, the bomb was recovered 80 days later.

 

Now, almost 60 years later, British property developer Bahía de Almanzora is planning to build 1,600 homes, plus a hotel and a sports complex just a mile from the 103-hecatre contaminated zone, which has been fenced off all this time.

 

Environmental activists are up in arms about the new venture, claiming that it’s dangerous. And the developer doesn’t even make any mention of the 1966 incident or the contamination in its promotional material for the housing complex.

 

Even being close to the site is enough detect increased radiation levels.

 

José Ignacio Domínguez, a lawyer who heads the local environmental group Ecologistas en Acción (Ecologists in Action), said in a statement to the Guardian that the plutonium isn’t just limited to the fenced-off area.

 

“It’s carried on the wind and by animals such as birds and rabbits,” he said, while adding that tests have revealed dangerously high levels of radiation outside the fenced-off zone.

 

Meritxell Bennasar from Greenpeace said: “A chain-link fence isn’t much of a barrier. Some of the contamination is only a few centimetres deep. There are places where the United States secretly buried contaminated soil and we’re only just finding out where they are.”

 

In 2015, the Spanish and US governments made a mutual agreement to clean up the irradiated zone, but to date neither of them have done anything.

 

Back in the 60s, the US government actually shifted 1,700 tonnes of contaminated earth by boat to South Carolina to dispose of it there, but there is still plenty of irradiated earth left on the Almeria coast.

 

 

Bahía de Almanzora’s development director, Fraser Prynne, said the contaminated land was “nowhere near the development” and that “this stuff about particles flying about is nonsense”.

 

“There’s no need to say it’s close to contaminated land,” he said. “There are probably 150 existing houses that are closer.

 

“We’re as keen as anyone to see the area cleaned up. It’s American plutonium but there’s no nuclear cemetery in Spain and no one else wants it.”

 

And it’s not only nuclear fallout causing problems. Eco-groups also point out that if the proposed development goes ahead, it will destroy what is virtually the last stretch of virgin coast in Almería.

 

“The only reason this part of the coast hasn’t been destroyed is because it’s radioactive,” said Domínguez.

 

For their part, though, the developers say that the mayor of Palomares and the local people are in favour of the plan as it will bring the town in line with other popular built-up areas of Alemria. Iain Alexander Moody from the Almanzora group said, “They’ve seen all the development along the coast and it’s been disappointing not to see it happening in their area.”

 

 

Images 1, 2 & 3: Wikimedia commons

Image 4: Jumanji Solar / Flickr