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Last of nation’s largest nuclear bombs…
Thursday, April 30th 2026

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Last of nation’s largest nuclear bombs disassembled

This undated handout image courtesy of the US Department of Energy shows workers moving a B53 bomb at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. The last of the nation's most powerful nuclear bombs - a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima - is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War. The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down October 25, 2011 at the Pantex Plant, the nation's only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The completion of the dismantling program is a year ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. Thomas D'Agostino, the nuclear administration's chief, called the bomb's elimination a "significant milestone." AFP PHOTO/HO/ US Department of Energy = RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / US Department of Energy " - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS =
This undated handout image courtesy of the US Department of Energy shows workers moving a B53 bomb at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas. The last of the nation’s most powerful nuclear bombs – a weapon hundreds of times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima – is being disassembled nearly half a century after it was put into service at the height of the Cold War. The final components of the B53 bomb will be broken down October 25, 2011 at the Pantex Plant, the nation’s only nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility. The completion of the dismantling program is a year ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Thomas D’Agostino, the nuclear administration’s chief, called the bomb’s elimination a “significant milestone.” AFP PHOTO/HO/ US Department of Energy = RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / US Department of Energy ” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS =
By | newsroom@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:
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AMARILLO, Texas — The last of the nation’s most powerful nuclear bombs has been taken apart in Texas.

Technicians at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo removed the uranium Tuesday from the last of the nation’s largest nuclear bombs, a Cold War relic known as the B53.

The bomb, put into service in 1962, was 600 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, that killed as many as 140,000 people at the end of World War II.

Deputy Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman watched workers take the bomb apart. He said it’s “a milestone accomplishment” and a step toward President Barack Obama’s mission to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

The nation’s largest nuclear bomb now is the 1.2-megaton B83. The B53 was 9 megatons.

The Associated Press; Associated Press file photo

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