Supreme Court turns away veterans who seek disability benefits over 1966 hydrogen bomb accident

[edwest4]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but Spain is not near the border of the Soviet Union.

Supreme Court turns away veterans who seek disability benefits over 1966 hydrogen bomb accident

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal on behalf of some U.S. veterans who want disability benefits because they were exposed to radiation while responding to a Cold War-era hydrogen bomb accident in Spain. The justices not did comment Tuesday in turning away an appeal from Victor Skaar, an...

apnews.com

 

[Arjen]

I'm not sure I catch your drift. In the middle of the Cold War, US military personnel on duty in a cleanup of several kilograms of pyrophoric plutonium compounds receive quite unhealthy radiation doses. In what way does the distance from Soviet territory matter?

 

[edwest4]

I'm not sure I catch your drift. In the middle of the Cold War, US military personnel on duty in a cleanup of several kilograms of pyrophoric plutonium compounds receive quite unhealthy radiation doses. In what way does the distance from Soviet territory matter?

The article states: "At the time, the U.S. was keeping nuclear-armed warplanes in the air near the border with the Soviet Union."

Middle of the Cold War? The Cold War started in 1945.

 

[Arjen]

The Cold War stretched into the Eighties, so yes, the middle.
From a US point of view, Palomares, on the south eastern Spanish coast is on the far side of the Atlantic - and then a bit. A lot closer to the Soviet Union than the US east coast.