US nuclear bomb in Dutch base seen "twisted by impact"

A US nuclear bomb was bent in what appears to be the first case of an accident involving nuclear weapons in Europe since the Cold War.

A photograph of a B61 bomb with a very noticeable curve in its middle being inspected by US soldiers at a Dutch air base, discovered by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), went viral on April 3, writes The Telegraph.

The rear of the bomb appeared to have been twisted by an impact, with a tail fin missing and pink sticky tape has been plastered over a hole in the weapon.

“What caused the damage to the B61 shape is unknown, but it appears to have been a significant force,” the report on the FAS website said.  

“It could potentially have been hit by a vehicle or bent out of shape by the weapons elevator of the underground storage vault.”

The FAS found the photo in a Los Alamos National Laboratory student briefing from 2022.

The briefing doesn’t say where the photo was taken but the FAS report has matched it to pictures taken inside a shelter at Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands.

The picture shows the weapon being inspected by US soldiers, including two from a bomb disposal unit.

The Volkel air base is one of six places across five European countries where the US stores nuclear weapons.

Hans Kristensen, the report author and director of the FAS nuclear information project, said there had been no official confirmation that the photo was taken at Volkel, that the bent bomb was real and not a training device or that the damage was the result of an accident.

“If the image is indeed from a nuclear weapons event, it would constitute the first documented case of a recent nuclear weapons accident at an air base in Europe,” he said.