Nucleaire

1964 · réf. 87717 — Livermore CA: U.S. Army Engineer Nuclear Cratering Group 1964. Presumed First Edition First printing. Wraps. Good. The format is approximately 8 inches by 10.5 inches. Various paginations approximately 120 pages. Illustrations figures tables tabular data. Ex-library copy with the usual library markings some blacked out. This is part of Plowshare--civil industrial and scientific used for nuclear explosives. The US Army Corps of Engineers Nuclear Cratering Group NCG program activities include: 1 cratering calibration of various geologic media and development of techniques designed to provide a desired crater geometry with chemical high-explosive detonations; 2 joint planning of and technical participation in AEC nuclear-excavation experiments; 3 development of data on the engineering properties of nuclear craters; 4 development of civil works nuclear construction technology; 5 accomplishment of engineering studies of nuclear construction feasibility; and 6execution of joint CE/AEC civil works nuclear-construction experiments. Four conceptual nuclear-construction applications have been identified as having a significant potential for accomplishment: 1 nuclear quarrying to produce rock fill or aggregate; 2 nuclear ejecta dam construction; 3 nuclear harbor construction; and 4 nuclear canal excavation. This inclosure described the design of the nuclear explosions required to excavate the channel for an Isthmian sea-level canal. The Columbian nuclear cue would use 262 devices with a total yield of 2709 megatons fired in 21 separate detonations. Project Plowshare was the overall United States program for the development of techniques to use nuclear explosives for peaceful construction purposes. The program was organized in June 1957 as part of the worldwide Atoms for Peace efforts. As part of the program 35 nuclear warheads were detonated in 27 separate tests. A similar program was carried out in the Soviet Union under the name Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy. Successful demonstrations of non-combat uses for nuclear explosives include rock blasting stimulation of tight gas chemical element manufacture unlocking some of the mysteries of the R-process of stellar nucleosynthesis and probing the composition of the Earth's deep crust creating reflection seismology vibroseis data which has helped geologists and follow-on mining company prospecting. The project's uncharacteristically large and atmospherically vented Sedan nuclear test also led geologists to determine that Barringer crater was formed as a result of a meteor impact and not from a volcanic eruption as had earlier been assumed. This became the first crater on Earth definitely proven to be from an impact event. Negative impacts from Project Plowshare's tests generated significant public opposition which eventually led to the program's termination in 1977. These consequences included tritiated water projected to increase by CER Geonuclear Corporation to a level of 2% of the then-maximum level for drinking water and the deposition of fallout from radioactive material being injected into the atmosphere before underground testing was mandated by treaty. Peaceful nuclear explosions PNEs are nuclear explosions conducted for non-military purposes. Proposed uses include excavation for the building of canals and harbors electrical generation the use of nuclear explosions to drive spacecraft and as a form of wide-area fracking. PNEs were an area of some research from the late 1950s into the 1980s primarily in the United States and Soviet Union. In the U.S. a series of tests were carried out under Project Plowshare. Some of the ideas considered included blasting a new Panama Canal constructing the proposed Nicaragua Canal the use of underground explosions to create electricity Project PACER and a variety of mining geological and radionuclide studies. The largest of the excavation tests was carried out in the Sedan nuclear test in 1962 which released large amounts of radioactive gas into the air. By the late 1960s public opposition to Plowshare was increasing and a 1970s study of the economics of the concepts suggested they had no practical use. Plowshare saw decreasing interest from the 1960s and was officially canceled in 1977. The Soviet program started a few years after the U.S. efforts and explored many of the same concepts under their Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy program. The program was more extensive eventually conducting 239 nuclear explosions. Some of these tests also released radioactivity including a significant release of plutonium into the groundwater and the polluting of an area near the Volga River. A major part of the program in the 1970s and 80s was the use of very small bombs to produce shock waves as a seismic measuring tool and as part of these experiments two bombs were successfully used to seal blown-out oil wells. The program officially ended in 1988. U.S. Army Engineer Nuclear Cratering Group paperback