🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <+-f1yfq@rpi.edu> strider@clotho.acm.rpi.edu (Greg Moore) writes:
>In article <178@newave.newave.mn.org> john@newave.newave.mn.org (John A. Weeks III) writes:
>>
>>Eeek! I was looking for a smiley at the end of your post, but I didn't
>>find one.  While I don't know about using nukes to nudge comets, I have
>>recently heard a few stories about the Soviet Union using nuclear bombs
>>for peaceful purposes.  They reportedly dug canals with a-bombs, seriously
>>polluting several rivers in the process.  They also used a-bombs as a
>>mining explosive--then sent unprotected workers into the mine only hours
>>after the explosion.  Please try to refrain from using nukes for anything
>>other than blowing up people, and I really hope we don't use them for
>>that purpose either.
>>
>>-john-
>>
>	Eek! I was looking for a smiley... :-)  Seriously though...
>Yes, there are reports that the Soviets used nuclear bombs for
>engineering projects.  A couple of comments though.  Part of the problem
>with the rivers was not so much radioactivity (as I recall) but the fact
>that they reversed the direction of a few, and completely changed
>the eco-systems on them and others.  Not that we haven't done the same.
>Take a look at the mouth of the Colorado.  It's litereally a trickle.
>And VERY polluted.
>
>	As for using them as mining explosions, it would seem the smart
>thing to do is NOT let unprotected workers into the mine.  ANd
>radioactivity in a mine is not uncommon, there is a lot of
>Radon in coal mines.  Also, my understanding (several eyars old)
>is taht they were creating large underground fuel resoivoirs... not mines.
>
>	The big trick is developing CLEAN nuclear weapons, i.e. ones with
>a minimal amount of fallout.  It can be done to some extent.

The AEC's Project Plowshare. Several civil engineering tests were done
with nuclear explosives here in the US under this project. One of the
practical applications of nuclear excavation proposed was the digging
of a sea level canal to replace the Panama Canal by use of nuclear
explosives. Using relatively clean devices, explosions in subsurface
bores would have formed caverns that would then be collapsed by another
explosion forming a sea level canal and trapping the residual radiation
in the collapsed chambers. Widening mountain passes for interstae highways
was another proposed use of nuclear excavation. Tests were done, and it
was feasible with radiation releases well below the safety limits of
the time, but the Test Ban Treaty effectively ended the project here.
They calculated that digging a new sea level canal would raise the
background count in Panama in the new waterway to no higher than the 
natural count in Denver, and only for a few tens of years.  Other 
projects, such as creating undergound storage caverns for natural gas, 
compressed air for electric peak shaving plants, and for oil storage 
were also explored. After an initial purge of loose radioactives, the 
caverns would be cheap and effective storage chambers for such light 
atoms since neutron activation is not an issue. Except for popular
hysteria, those projects remain attractive today.

Gary