from Hacker News

The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966

by kapranoff on 10/1/14, 9:10 PM with 124 comments

• by BrandonMarc on 10/1/14, 9:36 PM

  ... as well as once in 1968, twice in 1972, and once in 1981. 0.o

  The USSR had a whole program to investigate peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs), called Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy. [1] Sadly, some of these experiments went rather wrong, unexpectedly releasing lots of radioactive nasty near populated areas. The US also did this sort of thing from 1961 to 1973, and the program was cancelled in '77. [2]

  [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Explosions_for_the_Nati...

  [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plowshare

• by aganders3 on 10/1/14, 10:06 PM

  The US proposed many peaceful uses of nuclear explosives, mostly in the 60s. The catchall term for these proposals was "Project Plowshare" or "Operation Plowshare" [0].

  > And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more - Isaiah 2:3-5

  [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plowshare

• by jfb on 10/1/14, 10:06 PM

  This puts me mind of Herzog's fantastic documentary, Lessons Of Darkness [1], about the crews putting out the oil well fires in Kuwait. Also, the Door To Hell [2] in Turkmenistan.

  [1] http://www.fandor.com/films/lessons_of_darkness

  [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door_to_Hell

• by gcb0 on 10/2/14, 5:45 AM

  > "no radioactivity above background levels was detected at the surface of the ground during post-shot surveys."

  the wording on that makes me very suspicious of what was found "under surface of the ground" after they resumed drilling the gas/oil...

  Edit: yep. apparently this is Public Relations Speak. The wikipedia for the US plowshare tests do mention that all gas they extracted after using nukes to open way had very high levels of radiation and they could only be used in a few industrial places.

• by tptacek on 10/1/14, 11:40 PM

  Eric Schlosser's _Command and Control_ is an eye-opening read on this subject. It's hard to fathom how seemingly cavalier the US and USSR were about nuclear explosions in the decades after their invention. Nuclear landmines! Nuclear rifles!

• by suprgeek on 10/2/14, 12:17 AM

  Unfortunately the mere mention of "Nuclear" is a trigger word for most people, which is a tragedy considering that due to all the mistakes that were made in the past we have started to (finally) move to safer ways of using Nuclear Power.

  If we were realists about Nuclear energy like other forms of energy, we should have been entering a golden age of Nuclear right about now.

• by photorized on 10/2/14, 1:54 AM

  This reminds me of my visit to Centralia, PA, where the underground fire has been burning since 1962. Took lots of interesting pictures.

  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania

• by enlightenedfool on 10/2/14, 3:34 AM

  The big countries had their way with peaceful nuclear technology. Now, the smaller/weak ones are denied their own nuclear research and tech. forced to buy tech from the rich or get sanctioned to oblivion.

• by PhantomGremlin on 10/2/14, 3:37 AM

  I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned Project Orion[1] which involved using atomic bombs to propel a spacecraft.

  Seems a little hare-brained to me, but they took it pretty seriously back then. Of course, it was all just theoretical, which might be the reason nobody brought it up in this discussion.

  [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propul...

• by whyenot on 10/2/14, 12:17 AM

  The US also had several plans for using nuclear explosions for non-military purposes:

  The project team wanted to blow a path for a railway line through California’s Bristol Mountains; they wanted to use nukes to expand the Panama Canal; and they wanted to use underwater explosions to carve out a harbor in Alaska.

  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-us-once-wanted-...

• by matthiasb on 10/1/14, 11:22 PM

  I believe nuclear charges are not only used to stop spill but also to release natural resources. However I did not find a reputable source of information to confirm that.

• by legohead on 10/1/14, 9:35 PM

  They've also used them to stop underwater oil leaks. If we had done that with the last BP spill things would have been solved a lot quicker!

• by antimora on 10/2/14, 1:07 AM

  When I saw the date and the location of Uzbekistan, I thought it was related to the huge earthquake (7.5) of 1966 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. But it looks like the bomb was exploded in September but the earthquake was in April.

  More about this earthquake: http://www.tashkent-info.narod.ru/en/e_ze.htm

• by wahern on 10/2/14, 6:23 PM

  Suddenly the scenes in the movie Hellfighters (1968) (starring John Wayne) don't seem so dangerous or exciting. Somebody should do a reboot, but using a nuclear bomb instead of TNT.

  (Although in terms of safety I suppose I'd much rather be on team nuclear than team TNT. But Hollywood can add the requisite tension and danger.)

• by RoryH on 10/2/14, 1:02 PM

  Reminded me of this cool invention.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E16g1_ibpBM

• by forrestthewoods on 10/2/14, 3:11 AM

  Video says no radiation detected at surface. What is the effect of the radiation underground? How long until the gas is harvestable from a new well?

• by AbraKdabra on 10/1/14, 11:14 PM

  Actually, controlled explosions are the best strategy against big fires.

• by zincoontrin on 10/1/14, 9:53 PM

  Putting out a gas fire with a nuclear explosion... what can go wrong?

• by source99 on 10/1/14, 9:45 PM

  The US and Russia cooperated on a program to do this in space in order to stop a asteroid from destroying the planet. Bruce Willis led the mission.