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Nuclear Incidents Trivia Quiz

The nuclear genie is out of the bottle, and has done some damage since emerging. When did the following nuclear-related accidents and incidents occur, if at all?

A multiple-choice quiz by Stillman. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
Stillman

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
141,904

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Difficult

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
898

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. A US aircraft accidentally drops two hydrogen bombs on North Carolina. Hint

1950s

1960s

1970s

Never happened

NEXT>

Question 2 of 10

2. A nuclear warhead aboard a Soviet submarine accidentally detonates while the sub is deep underwater, vaporizing the submarine and irradiating several square miles of ocean. Hint

1960's

1980's

1970's

Never happened

NEXT>

Question 3 of 10

3. An accident at a Ukrainian nuclear facility kills 31 and renders many square miles of land nearly uninhabitable. Hint

Never happened

1970s

1980s

1990s

NEXT>

Question 4 of 10

4. A French nuclear submarine suffers a steam leak that causes the reactor core to overheat. The sailors SCRAM the reactor and abandon ship in the western Mediterranean. Hint

1980s

Never happened

1990s

1970s

NEXT>

Question 5 of 10

5. An Israeli A-4 Skyhawk carrying a nuclear bomb crashes in the desert after being shot down. The bomb is never recovered. Hint

1980s

1960s

Never happened

1970s

NEXT>

Question 6 of 10

6. An American A-4 Skyhawk carrying a nuclear bomb slides off the deck of a US aircraft carrier near Okinawa and sinks. The bomb is never recovered. Hint

Never happened

1970s

1960s

1980s

NEXT>

Question 7 of 10

7. An American nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania suffers a serious accident, coming within minutes of a catastrophic meltdown. Hint

Never happened

1980s

1970s

1990s

NEXT>

Question 8 of 10

8. 129 sailors die when an American nuclear submarine sinks near Boston due to undetermined causes. Hint

1960s

1970s

1950s

Never happened

NEXT>

Question 9 of 10

9. A nuclear-powered satellite falls from orbit and crashes in North America, contaminating over 47,000 square miles of territory. Hint

1980s

Never happened

1990s

1970s

10. A single nuclear weapon goes missing from an arsenal in the Southwestern United States. After a three-hour alert, the weapon is found in a warehouse on base, inexplicably mis-labelled and mis-stored as a conventional bomb. Hint

1980s

1990s

Never happened

2000s

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. A US aircraft accidentally drops two hydrogen bombs on North Carolina.

Answer: 1960s

In 1961, a B-52 on a training flight caught fire while flying over North Carolina. As a result of the fire, the bomb ejector racks failed, and two unarmed H-bombs fell to earth. Of course they did not detonate, and they were quickly recovered by the US Air Force.

Incidentally, one of the recovered bombs had six of the seven firing safeties triggered! Talk about close calls. Thanks to cag1970 for the extra info.

2. A nuclear warhead aboard a Soviet submarine accidentally detonates while the sub is deep underwater, vaporizing the submarine and irradiating several square miles of ocean.

Answer: Never happened

Given the accident rate of Soviet nuclear submarines, this was always a concern. Thankfully, it never happened.

3. An accident at a Ukrainian nuclear facility kills 31 and renders many square miles of land nearly uninhabitable.

Answer: 1980s

The infamous 1986 Chernobyl explosion was a serious wake-up call to the dangers of what could happen if a nuclear facility suffered a major catastrophe.

4. A French nuclear submarine suffers a steam leak that causes the reactor core to overheat. The sailors SCRAM the reactor and abandon ship in the western Mediterranean.

Answer: Never happened

So far, the French have had good fortune with their nuclear submarine programs. This never happened.

5. An Israeli A-4 Skyhawk carrying a nuclear bomb crashes in the desert after being shot down. The bomb is never recovered.

Answer: Never happened

Although Tom Clancy theorized about such an event in his novel "The Sum of All Fears", it never actually happened.

6. An American A-4 Skyhawk carrying a nuclear bomb slides off the deck of a US aircraft carrier near Okinawa and sinks. The bomb is never recovered.

Answer: 1960s

In December of 1965, such a thing happened. The carrier was the USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14). The A-4, with bomb attached and pilot still in the seat, rolled off the deck and sank in 16,000 feet of water. To anyone's knowledge, the aircraft, the pilot's remains, and the bomb are still there.

7. An American nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania suffers a serious accident, coming within minutes of a catastrophic meltdown.

Answer: 1970s

If you haven't heard of the 1979 Three Mile Island incident, you haven't been paying attention. A series of accidents and equipment failures temporarily shut down the cooling systems at the plant. Although the reactor never actually suffered a meltdown, and the radioactive contamination to the surrounding area was extremely slight, the damage done to the reactor itself was extensive, and if the accident had progressed a little further, the results would have been beyond disastrous ... of the order of the Chernobyl accident.

8. 129 sailors die when an American nuclear submarine sinks near Boston due to undetermined causes.

Answer: 1960s

The sinking of the USS Thresher in 1963, the first nuclear submarine lost by the USA (the second was the USS Scorpion in 1968), caused the US Navy to re-evaluate the safety programs on board US subs. Several theories exist as to the cause of her loss, ranging from engine room flooding to a reactor cooling system failure to a pressure leak in fittings (poor welding).

9. A nuclear-powered satellite falls from orbit and crashes in North America, contaminating over 47,000 square miles of territory.

Answer: 1970s

The Soviet Cosmos-954 satellite crashed into Canada's uninhabited Northwest Territories in January of 1978. The contamination was widespread, and a joint US/Canadian clean-up effort dubbed "Operation Morning Light" only managed to recover an estimated 0.1 percent of Cosmos-954's power source.

Answer: Never happened

Thankfully, such a scenario never happened. The US takes nuclear weapons security pretty seriously. .. although frighteningly enough, it isn't implausible to think that such a thing might somehow have happened.

Source: Author Stillman

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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