Nuclear bomb replica brought to Raleigh for protests

The replica was brought to Raleigh Sunday as part of a protest by members of N.C. Peace Action who are against the use of nuclear weapons.

Members of North Carolina Peace Action protested outside the Terry Sanford building with the replica to protest the funding of nuclear weapons.

Joe Cicero, a Peace Action representative, said the weapons could be spent on more pressing needs.

"These nuclear weapons are expensive and we will think we can spend the money on other things like education [or] getting rid of climate change," Cicero said. "There’s a lot of things we could spend them on,"

Peace Action has been part of the effort to eliminate more than 85 percent of the world’s nuclear stock piles during the past 68 years.

Around midnight on January 24, 1961, a B-52 bomber dropped it’s two 3.8 megaton nuclear bombs onto a farm in Faro, NC. Although one bomb was recovered, parts of the nuclear core of the other bomb remains buried at the site .

Nuclear mishap: Field hides remnants of atomic bombs dropped on NC 62 years ago

“Most people have never seen a nuclear weapon or know about the 1,550 nuclear weapons currently aimed at the United States and Russia,” said Joe Burton of N.C. Peace Action. "We work to educate citizens and political representatives about the dangers of nuclear weapons and the moral imperative to eliminate them."

This is only one of at least 76 nuclear accidents, known as "Broken Arrows," we know about with at least six nuclear weapons that were never recovered.

A Broken Arrow is defined as an unexpected event involving nuclear weapons that result in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft, or loss of the weapon.

“Both the U.S. and Russia have almost accidentally launched their nuclear missiles multiple times," Burton said. "While false alarms of incoming nuclear missiles have been caused by power failures, faulty computer chips, solar flares, full moons and flocks of birds."

“Peace Action's success comes from our nationwide grassroots network made up of ordinary citizens," Cicero said. "We keep a report card on members of Congress on how they vote on nuclear weapons issues. If one submarine launched it’s nuclear weapons, the smoke from burning cites would block the sunlight for five to 10 years causing what's known as 'Nuclear Winter.'”

In addition to the protest, N.C. Peace Action commemorated the second anniversary of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons coming into full force.

The re-setting of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists "Doomsday Clock was also recognized.

“The international community has outlawed chemical weapons, biological weapons and now nuclear weapons," Cicero said. "As the 'Doomsday Clock' warns us, we don’t have a minute to waste."