Nuclear weapons are the most devastating things that humans have ever created.

They're so powerful and terrible that nations that have them strictly control how they are used and handled.

That being said, over the 75 year history that nuclear weapons have existed, accidents have happened.

While not common, they have happened enough that the US military has a code word for such events.

Learn more about broken arrows and what happens when there are accidents with nuclear weapons

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. Nuclear weapons are very serious things.

The only thing worse than using them would be that they would be used by accident,

or even worse that one might be stolen and used by a nefarious third party.

To that end, today nuclear weapons have the tightest controls.

Even back in the late Cold War, command and control systems were in place to ensure that nuclear weapons would never be used when they weren't intended.

If you ever want to see what the systems were like to control nuclear missiles,

I highly recommend visiting the Minuteman National Historic Site in Western South Dakota.

They have an actual Minuteman nuclear launch site and you can visit the underground bunker where

the Missoleers, that was their title, would be on duty for days at a time in an underground bunker behind

blast-proof doors.

That being said, these protocols surrounding nuclear weapons took time to develop, and they were

created due to several rather embarrassing and dangerous accidents.

While an accident surrounding nuclear weapons is to be avoided at all costs,

there are protocols in place if such a thing were to happen.

Such an event is known as a Broken Arrow.

A Broken Arrow could be any number of things,

including an unintended nuclear explosion,

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