The Pentagon has admitted to mistakenly shipping nuclear parts to Taiwan. On Tuesday, military officials said four fuses for nuclear missiles were accidentally sent in the fall of 2006. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said the fuses were returned without incident.

Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne: “Upon learning of the error, the US government took immediate action to acquire positive control of the components and arranged for their safe and secure recovery to the United States. These items have now been safely returned to the United States.”

The disclosure comes six months after the Pentagon admitted to mistakenly flying a B-52 bomber loaded with five nuclear warheads across part of the United States. Each of the five nuclear warheads has about ten times the destructive force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Joseph Cirincione of the Ploughshares Fund says the latest incident shows the US has “too many nuclear weapons with too little control over them.”