Time to Pass Out the Potassium Iodide Pills Again?

American  Thinker 

In August 2022, “the European Union pledged to preemptively donate more than five million anti-radiation tablets [potassium iodide] to Ukraine amid fears of a Chernobyl-level catastrophe at the Russian-occupied, embattled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.”

In October 2025, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un displayed a new long-range intercontinental ballistic missile at a Pyongyang military parade, attended by foreign leaders including Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev.

President Vladimir Putin announced February 21, 2023 during his Federal Assembly Presidential Address that Russia wouldn’t allow the U.S. and NATO to inspect their nuclear facilities and stated that any nuclear weapons tests conducted by Americans would be countered with Russian nuclear tests.  While complaining that French and British nuclear weapons aren’t covered by the New START treaty,  February 2025 Russia announced the reason it suspended participation in the New START treaty in 2023 was due to U.S. support of Ukraine.

Russia had frequently been caught violating the terms of the deal.

The War Department stated China will soon have more than 1,000 nuclear warheads, a near-doubling the estimated 600 they possess right now, building 100 new nuclear weapons a year, putting them “on track to reach strategic parity with the U.S. by the mid-2030s.”  Reports state that America is being left “vulnerable in an era when Moscow, Beijing, and Pyongyang are all expanding their arsenals at breakneck speed.”

TASS News reports, “President Donald Trump accused Russia, North Korea, China, Pakistan and other countries of secretly holding underground nuclear tests.” President Trump stated, “You don’t necessarily know where they are testing.  They test way underground… you feel a little bit of vibration…  They test and we don’t.”  October 29 Trump instructed the Pentagon to immediately resume nuclear weapons testing, without specification of the type of testing to be conducted.

All of this taken together led Karin Kneissl, former Austrian foreign minister and head of the Geopolitical Observatory for Russia’s Key issues (GORK) to conclude, “the world may encounter another round of a nuclear arms race.”

On November 11, Trump stated he no longer believed that the Ukrainian conflict will lead to World War III, but in April 2025, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Medvedev stated he believes the threat of nuclear apocalypse is still there.

Would someone be crazy enough to start a nuclear exchange?  One would hope not, because mutually assured destruction is not a win for anyone.  Even so, a real threat for the world still exists, and is captured in President Trump’s next statement, which is true for all nations with nuclear weapons.  President Trump stated, “And if we have ‘em [nuclear weapons], we have to test’em, otherwise you don’t really know how they’re gonna work.  And we don’t ever want to use them.”

While the United States of America has the best military training and equipment on the planet, hiccups still happen and equipment occasionally fails.  During a March 2025 joint training exercise with the U.S., a South Korean fighter jet accidentally dropped eight MK-82 bombs injuring multiple people.  Fortunately, these were not nuclear weapons, but just imagine if they had been.

It is true that this was a South Korean pilot who made the mistake, but the highly-trained and best-equipped-in-the-world U.S. military has had at least 32 incidents when the weapons involved were nuclear weapons.  These incidents are called “Broken Arrows,” which is “an unexpected event involving nuclear weapons that result in the accidental launching, firing, detonating, theft, or loss of the weapon.”

During the published 32 U.S. Broken Arrow incidents, 6 nuclear weapons have gone missing between the 1950s and the year 2000.

One of these incidents occurred in 1958 when a B-47 bomber collided with an F-86 fighter off the coast of the state of Georgia.  The B-47 was carrying a 7,600-pound Mark 15 hydrogen thermonuclear bomb with an explosive yield of 3.8 megatons, 190 times more powerful than the Fat Man bomb, which leveled Nagasaki, Japan.  With the plane going down, the bomber pilot jettisoned the bomb into the waters of Wassaw Sound near Tybee Island, Georgia.  While the Navy searched, the bomb was never found, but the public was reassured that the plutonium warhead had been replaced with a lead simulation.  However, 1994 documents released from a 1966 Congressional Testimony revealed the “Tybee Mark 15 nuclear weapon” was a complete weapon.

Another incident in 1961 involved a B-52 bomber flying over Eastern North Carolina carrying two “armed and ready” atomic bombs as part of Operation Chrome Dome.  Developing a fuel leak, with pilots unable to level the plane, they dumped the fuel, but the wing started falling apart.  An Onslow County native, co-pilot Adam Mattocks, stated the captain ordered everyone to bail out.  Six made it out, one died in the jump, and two died as the plane crashed 12 miles North of Goldsboro, N.C.  Mattocks had bailed out, crawling through a hole made by an ejection seat.  Once in the air, Mattocks saw one bomb parachuting to the ground, but the parachute for the other bomb didn’t open, causing it to hit the ground going an estimated 700 miles per hour.  The warhead hasn’t been seen since, being only “one safety-switch away from exploding.”  Three of the four detonators were activated.

Concerning the six known reported missing U.S. nuclear warheads, one is in the Mediterranean Sea, two are in the Pacific Ocean, two are in the Atlantic Ocean, and one is in Eastern North Carolina.

With the U.S. being the best military in the world, but yet still having equipment problems resulting in 32 known Broken Arrow incidents, does anyone think it is safe for Russia, North Korea, China, Pakistan, and other countries to be flying around practicing drills with live nuclear weapons?  This sounds like multiple opportunities to have major nuclear accidents, especially if the world is gearing up for another nuclear arms race.

While the Department of Defense released a document detailing the 32 Broken Arrow incidents, a declassified document from the Defense Atomic Support Agency details hundreds more.

In 1981, The Defense Monitor, stated this in their conclusion from looking at the Broken Arrow incidents: “The variety of nuclear weapons accidents which have occurred in the past and the increased number of nuclear weapons suggest that more accidents and perhaps more serious accidents will occur in the future.”

More recently, President Trump stated, “We have the best [nuclear weapons], and I was the one that renovated them and built them during a four-year period [as president].  And I hated to do it, because the destructive capability is something you don’t even wanna talk about.”

President Trump has to deal with the cards that he was dealt, and he and his cabinet have to navigate complex world interactions, with nuclear fallout a rising possibility.

It’s time for Democrats in Congress to stop playing political games and start supporting our president.  Mature, sensible, and sane adults understand there’re more important things to consider, than merely making payback points for one’s political party and cronies!