This Town Once Had America's Most Powerful Bomb--50 Of Them!

We all know that we have Pantex in our backyard. It's located between Amarillo and Panhandle.

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What does Pantex do?

According to the Pantex website, they are the primary assembly, disassembly, retrofit, and life-extension center for nuclear weapons.

To put it into simple terms, nuclear bombs come to the facility and Pantex takes them apart so they are not functional bombs anymore.

However, they do way more out at the plant than anyone will ever know, but it is a government facility that facilitates the dismantlement of nuclear bombs.

What is the oldest nuclear weapon in the U.S.?

YouTube National Nuclear Security Administration

The B53 Thermonuclear Bomb is the oldest lived weapon in the US. It was put in commission in 1962. It was a cold war creation. This nuclear bomb yielded 9 megatons.

YouTube National Nuclear Security Administration

meg·a·ton

/ˈmeɡəˌtən/

noun

a unit of explosive power chiefly used for nuclear weapons, equivalent to one million tons of TNT.
"H-bombs of fifteen megatons each"

They were the most powerful weapon in the U.S. arsenal. This bomb was what they called a Bunker Buster. This was designed to penetrate hardened targets or targets buried deep underground.

YouTube National Nuclear Security Administration

Has this bomb been retired?

The B53 was retired in 1986, but the U.S. brought back 50 of those particular nuclear weapons in 1988 with certain modifications. They were once again retired in 1997 and were supposed to be immediately disassembled, but due to a lack of resources at the time they were not. Pantex finally disassembled the 50 B53s in 2010. Special training and special tools were developed to be able to disassemble this particular weapon.

Every Time Jeopardy! Asked a Question About Amarillo

Amarillo might not be a bustling urban metropolis, but it most certainly is full of quirky characters, unexpected treasures, and historical gems that fly under the radar. It should really be no surprise that our fair Yellow City has popped up more than a few times on Jeopardy!

What's that? How many times is "more than a few times"? Well, take al look and see for yourself.

Google Answers the Top 10 Questions About Amarillo

I love Google. It can literally answer ANYTHING you need it to answer. Whether it's right or wrong is a totally different question.

Recently, I found myself wondering about something and went to Google. And that's when I started noticing the "people also asked..." section and BOY...Some of them made perfect sense, some of them were interesting, and one of them was downright baffling...and it was a top 10 question which is even more absurd.

So let's see what we've got. Here's the top 10 questions as asked to Google about Amarillo.

Books That Use Amarillo or the Texas Panhandle as a Setting

Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle is a great city with great history. When it comes to the literary world, it is always great to see our area represented in books.

Here is a great list where Amarillo and/or the Texas Panhandle is used as a setting or mentioned in a book.