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Article Source: Wired NewsYou might think of nuclear weapons as just the most fearsome weapon ever invented by humans, but that would be seriously underplaying their versatility.
Nuclear weapons aren't only good for leveling cities, they've also been used throughout the last 50 years for a variety of civilian purposes like stimulating natural gas production — and all kinds of innovative proposals have been slapped on the table to harness the awesome power of the nuclear blast for economic benefit.
"For excavation, we put a lot of time and effort and money into developing nuclear explosives which had minimal fissionable material so that you could carry out a 100-kiloton cratering explosion and release the radioactivity equivalent to a 20-ton explosive of fissionable material," Nordyke said.
The Orion Project was killed solely because of the high levels of radiation its propulsion would release. It was technically sound, and has been the only feasible technology for serious manned interplanetary flight to be developed.
Why not use the technology developed to minimize fissile material requirements for excavation, to do the same for Orion propulsion?
#1 - Sun Apr 12, 2009 1:03 AM EDTGreat, let industry get a hold of nukes for "peaceful" uses. Wonder how quickly they would go on the market.
What would be the effect of plowshare, the Panama Canal, isnt there an elevation difference between the Atlantic and Pacific? What about the Gulf Stream?
#2 - Sun Apr 12, 2009 6:57 PM EDTBut despite the technical success of the Plowshare program, Nordyke doesn’t see nuclear weapons being used for excavation or mining anytime soon because it doesn’t seem politically feasible
That is the issue. Good find purescience.
#3 - Mon May 11, 2009 3:01 AM EDTWhat absurd ideas. Nukes can not be used for any kind of peaceful activity. It is too dangerous to consider.
#4 - Sun May 30, 2010 7:18 PM EDTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
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