tremendous amount of activity directed toward recovering the fissionable material, Another incident occurred on January 17, 1966 over Spain, when a KC 135 (a plane used to refuel B-52s) and a B-52 carrying hydrogen warheads collided, As a result of the collision, four nuclear warheads were lost. One bomb was found in the Mediterranean Sea, and others were located in the Village of Palomares and apparently fissionable material escaped, contaminating the soil around the village. As a result, the Imited States spent three months scraping off topsoil and loading it into steel drums, The topsoil was then replaced with new soil, and today, 4,879 drums of Spanish soil are stored in South Caroline on U.S. soil, Furthermore, the United States brought back contaminated ice from the Greenland incident, It is reported that claims paid to the people of Palomares were less than one million dollars, even though the decontamination efforts cost about $15 million. Furthermore, the Spanish Government withheld a claim for damages for 15-30 years. It is eminently clear that concern by the United States and other countries is of the greatest dimension, This concern is not only for humanitarian concerns, but also because nuclear "incidents" (the AEC term for accidents) can be extremely costly in terms of money, The law which created the Atomic Energy Commission and amendments to the law provide that the ALC can indemnify any contractor with it for the amount of $500,000,000 for each incident -25- ERIE gE ETT a ee am ane Pe OP SR PL SETTER NTT emery: Fo Soe np eae penge mgane oo ce py a = eee eeee ee ee en vl ie ot Are pia hay ee , ; ep SP IR pe ga ' "3 aMye