Operation Plowshare and Project Gasbuggy: When the US government decided to frack with nukesHydrauli

Operation Plowshare and Project Gasbuggy: When the US government decided to frack with nukesHydraulic fracturing has become a high profile and highly debated topic in recent years due to its use within the fracking industry to extract oil and gas. Whatever your stance on the dangers or necessity of it, I guarantee by the end of this article you will agree the dangers of today’s techniques pale in comparison to those used in the past.Welcome to Operation Plowshare, coined in 1961 by the American government as an idea to develop peaceful construction uses for nuclear bombs. These included but were not limited to; widening the Panama Canal, creating a new water way through Nicaragua called the Pan-Atomic canal (I wish I was joking) and blasting underground caves for the storage of hydrocarbons and water.One of the projects that got the green light was project Gasbuggy. On December 10, 1967 a 29kt nuclear device (almost twice the size of the Hiroshima bomb) was detonated 1,288m beneath Leandro Canyon, New Mexico in the hope of fracking the Lewis Shale. The idea was that nuclear warheads could be used to frack reservoirs to allow the extraction of natural gas, and during the next 6 years two other tests, Project Ruislin (Colorado) and Project Rio Blanco (Colorado) were also carried out.The idea came about as geologists had been using explosives to fracture reservoirs for several years. The thinking behind the plan was simple; if TNT and dynamite could induce fractures then surely a nuclear bomb would just be more effective?As far as fracking the reservoir was concerned, this plan was a roaring success. The explosion created a glass-lined cavern 160feet wide and 333 feet high. This collapsed within seconds of detonation to form a large pile of rubble. The reservoir itself was fractured in a 200ft radius around the well, allowing a much greater flow of natural gas out of the ground. In one year the well produced as much natural gas as the previous seven years put together.Unsurprisingly the rubble and the gas released were both highly radioactive, and due to increasing concerns about the effects of radioactive material on human health, no more wells were drilled. After an initial clean up, the site was left untouched for over 10 years with only a plaque to suggest the tests had ever taken place. Later, a surface clean-up was attempted to try and dispose of the leftover toxic materials and a government order was passed banning all digging and drilling in the area.More tests had been planned, however the American government shut down Project Plowshare in 1977 after health warnings and strong public opposition had been raised. You can still visit the site where the testing took place, and the plaque commemorating the event still exists. Then again so do the high background levels of radiation, so maybe not?WatsonImage Credit: Los Alamos LabReferences: Project Gasbuggy: http://aoghs.org/technology/project-gasbuggy/Blackpool Earthquake: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21120-how-fracking-caused-earthquakes-in-the-uk.html#.VIc34DGsWYA -- source link
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