Biggest US Nuclear Bomb Dismantled In Texas

Cold War relic 600 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima dismantled as part of US nuclear policy. The last of the nation's biggest nuclear bombs, a Cold War relic 600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, has been dismantled in what one energy official called a milestone in President Barack Obama plan to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

This undated handout photo provided by the National Nuclear Security Administration shows the United States’ last B53 nuclear bomb.

Workers in Texas separated the roughly 300lb (136kg) of high explosives inside from the special nuclear material – uranium, known as the pit. The work was done outside of public view for security reasons, but explosives from a bomb taken apart earlier were detonated as officials and reporters watched from less than a mile (1.6 kilometers) away. Thomas D'Agostino, the nuclear administration's chief, called the bomb's elimination a "significant milestone."

Put into service in 1962, when Cold War tensions peaked during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the B53 weighed 10,000 pounds and was the size of a minivan. According to the American Federation of Scientists, it was 600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, killing as many as 140,000 people and helping end World War II.