There are currently nine nuclear powers in the world. Nine countries that have, or claim to have, among their military arsenal ready to use atomic bombs in the event of a threat from another country. In reality, they are more of a measure of pressure to achieve other ends. The most recent case North Korea. with its successive nuclear threats pursues notoriety inside and outside its borders, as well as get favors by powers like the United States or China.
And more recently, Ukraine, the United States and Russia they stir the specter of nuclear weapons. Ukraine for more international aid in his war against Russia. United States for put pressure on russia and tarnish your image. And Russia to show the world that they are still the power that they were. Meanwhile, the world trembles before a nuclear threat which will hardly come true, as we lived during the Cold War.
Precisely, the atomic bomb “was in fashion” during that time. It was a way of demonstrate power. After World War II, the world powers wanted to “stick their chests out” and redefine who “ruled” the world. Hence after USA and the USSR, countries like the United Kingdom, France, India or Pakistan were incorporating the atomic bomb into their arsenal. Even Spain wanted to be a nuclear power. We already know the end. But, how was that Spanish attempt to get the atomic bomb?
Spain and the world in the Cold War
Behind the 1936 coup and the consequent civil warwhich ended in 1939, Spain experienced a dictatorship that did not end, officially, until 1975. Thus, during the stage known as Cold Warthe world saw how United States and the USSR they confronted each other indirectly in areas such as economic, cultural and ideological influence, the space race and/or their support for both sides in different conflicts around the globe. They even supported coups on different continents.
That Cold War was never direct because both powers had with the atomic bomb. So if one side had launched one or more of those nuclear warheads, the answer would have been that half the planet would have ended up destroyed. With millions of lives lost and large tracts of land made uninhabitable by radiation. This without counting the consequences, direct and indirect, for the rest of the countries. As a curiosity, this hypothetical scenario was called MAD, in English, crazy. acronym meaning mutual assured destruction either mutual assured destruction and that the theoretician and strategist Donald Brennan coined in 1962.
Thus, although no one wanted or intended to use the atomic bomb, many coveted it. It was a way of achieve international influence. And to be part of the select club of countries with nuclear capabilities. Something that Spain longed to achieve, as had its French and English neighbors. A way of perpetuate the dictatorship and of open it to the world after the events of World War II.
Islero project and the Spanish atomic bomb
Spain had a Nuclear Power Board since 1948, although under another name. Today it is known by its acronym CIEMAT. The initial idea was to obtain nuclear capacity both to obtain electricity and, especially, to make your own atomic bomb or nuclear bomb. Three years before, USA had created its own nuclear warheads and launched them against civilian population to end World War II without further ado.
In order for Spain to obtain its own nuclear bomb, it launched what became known as Islander Project that same 1948. Its name, Islero, was given because it is the name of the bull that, in 1947, injured the popular bullfighter Manolete and who died shortly after due to the wounds of said animal in the bullring of Linares, Jaen. And to direct such a peculiar project, Franco assigned Guillermo Velardetrained in the United States, commander of the Air Force and, later, professor of Nuclear Physics.
Spanish scientists worked on the project and also german scientists who had managed to escape from Germany during or at the end of World War II. A “talent acquisition” similar to the one carried out by the United States and the USSR years before. Of course, the main ingredient was in Spanish territory. Specifically, in the uranium mines of Arjona, in Jaen. As a curiosity, 50 kilometers from where the popular bullfighter had died.
The invaluable help of the American friend
After the defeat of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in World War II, Spain had been left internationally isolated. Germans and Italians had used Spanish territory, during the Spanish civil war, as proving ground for the war machine that they would use later on Europe. And, during the European war, the Franco dictatorship had collaborated with raw materials and, to a lesser extent, soldiers to fight against the USSR.
However, the consequent Cold War made America was pragmatic. And take advantage of Spain’s good geographical position to install military bases. Hence, in 1953, Eisenhower and Franco signed the so-called Madrid Pacts. In exchange for certain financial aid and image laundering, the United States installed in Spanish territory military bases such as Morón de la Frontera (Seville), Rota (Cádiz), Zaragoza and Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid). And, later, in 1959, the United States, through the CIA, would finance Radio Libertya radio station based in Pals (Girona) that broadcast to the communist territories of Eastern Europe and the USSR with news and anti-communist propaganda.
After that first agreement of 1953, another one was produced in 1955, more specific. This is a nuclear cooperation agreement included in the program atoms for peace. The objective is for Spain to install nuclear power plants to generate electricity. Use atomic energy for peaceful purposes, not weapons. Obviously, Franco’s plans were different. However, in 1958 the Juan Vigón Nuclear Energy Center at the University City of Madrid.
And as a result, between 1965 and 1968 the first nuclear power plant in Spain was built, the Jose Cabrera Nuclear Power Plantknown as zorita. Located in the province of Guadalajara, it worked between 1968 and 2006. But the plan to obtain the atomic bomb followed another path.
The timing of the Palomares incident
On January 17, 1966, the small town of dovecotes, in Almería, will become known throughout Spain and beyond its borders. Unfortunately, for a plane crash which will have several consequences. The most direct, the death of seven of the eleven crew members of the two aircraft that collided with each other. One of them was a B-52 bomber carrying four thermonuclear bombs. The other, a tanker plane that had to refuel the bomber.
First consequence, the plane crash. Seven fatalities. Second consequence. The four atomic bombs fall into Spanish territory. Immediate result. The United States sends more than 30 ships with 4 submersible mini-submarines, various teams of divers, and a ground and air deployment with the mission of recover the nuclear bombs.
On the Spanish side, of course, there was a secrecy that has lasted to this day. Some of the information about the incident has only been known in the last decades. And thanks to declassified documents from the United States. Spanish documentation continues to be classified under the successive laws of official secrets. And although relations between the United States and Spain were collaborative, there were misgivings between both parties.
In the first 24 hours of the incident, three of the four were recovered nuclear warheads. The military deployment in the area focused on the fourth atomic bomb, which was recovered from the depths of the sea on April 7. Almost three months after the incident.
Although officially, neither scientists nor the military had contact with the warheads, they were able to collect information about the consequences of the same for the population. The entire area was exposed to radiation from two of the recovered bombs. Almost 3 square kilometers with radiation in agricultural land, surrounding forests, houses and, of course, in the civilian population. And despite the iconic image of the then information and tourism minister, Manuel Fragagetting wet in the waters of the area, the radiation was present for 40 years.
As for the Spanish atomic project, Franco decides to postpone it indefinitely. Nevertheless, although two years later, in 1968, dozens of countries sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Spain does not sign it. And in 1971, the project will be resumed again with French support.
The end of the Spanish atomic bomb
We arrive at 1973. Franco’s dictatorship has already gone through several stages. After his first stage of autarky and international isolation and a subsequent revitalization thanks to the United States collaboration As an ally against the USSR, Spain has experienced a The 60s which has meant industrializing part of the country and adopting tourism as a source of financing for a large part of the territory, especially the Spanish coasts.
In 1973, Spain lived through the last years of Franco until his death at the end of 1975. In the summer of 1969, Juan Carlos I It is named heir to the dictator as King. And since 1973, the Presidency of Spain rests with Luis Carrero Blanco, an admiral by profession, who replaces an aging and already injured Francisco Franco. At the end of that same year, the world experienced a global energy crisis when, in October 1973, OPEC decided stop exporting oil to the countries that supported Israel during the war between Israel, Syria and Egypt.
In this context, the United States Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, receives information from the CIA about Spain’s plan to create its own atomic bomb. A project that, as we have seen, had been underway since 1948. And that, according to the US agency, in a short time it would bear fruit. Whether or not that information is true, Kissinger visits Madrid to meet with Franco and Carrero.
We do not know how that conversation went. yes we know that Carrero Blanco was favorable to have an atomic bomb. But on November 20, 1973, an attack kills Carrero, putting an end to the Spanish atomic race. It’s more. During the turbulent years of the Transition (1975-1982), there are so many open fronts that the atomic theme is relegated practically into oblivion. In 1981, the Spanish government of the time definitively canceled the project and is subject to IAEA inspection, the International Atomic Energy Organization. And finally, in 1987, the Spanish government signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.