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The United States abandoned a nuclear weapon under the ice in northern Greenland when it was lost in a plane crash in 1968, the BBC reported.
Testimony of those involved and declassified documents show that despite a desperate search of the crash site near a US military base at Thule, the weapon was never found.
The US military deployed nuclear-armed B52 bombers to circle over the base from 1960 so they could head straight to Moscow if it was destroyed.
Officials believed the radioactive material in the weapon would dissolve in such a large body of water and be made harmless.
