Nuclear Bomb explodes in Colorado
Technically, it wasn’t a bomb, just a nuclear device.
It wasn’t terrorism or war. In fact, it was a peacetime
explosion.
The test was part of “Project Plowshare", an attempt to turn
nuclear “swords” into plows. Once nuclear bombs were perfected and
stockpiled, the realities of economics triggered a hunt for the peacetime use
of the power of atoms. Project Plowshare
partnered the US Government with various private industries to use the
tremendous power of nuclear explosions in construction and mining operations.
Nuclear is much cheaper and smaller than an equivalent
explosive force of dynamite, TNT, or nitroglycerin. Proposals included using
nuclear to excavate a harbor in Alaska, carve a sea-level passage across
Panama, build various water canals
around the West, and make road-building easier.
Project Rulison was an attempt to break up underground rock to allow movement of natural gas deposits to enter a well.
Yes, you read that right.
Nuclear Fracking.
A Texas oil company bought up many Colorado mineral rights
and set about pumping natural gas. In 1969, they decided to increase their
output by finding a better, faster, cheaper way to break up the rocks 1.5 miles
below the surface. The test site was above the town of Rulison, on Battlement
Mesa. Battlement Creek and the other nearby streams all flow into the Colorado
River.
On September 10, 1969, the consortium detonated a 40-kiloton
ton fission bomb. The geologist predicted that the center of the explosion
would vaporize and, the surrounding earth would melt. When it re- solidified,
all the radiation would be trapped in the new glass at the bottom of a 160’
cavern. The cavern ceiling would
collapse. The rock would fracture in all directions. And all the nearby natural
gas would flow to the new well. Voila –
a cheap, safe, easy method to capture American fuel.
Except for one tiny detail:
the radiation was not trapped in the melted rock. It spread out. Into
the natural gas itself. Which made it unsuitable for public consumption.
They got their gas. But they couldn’t sell it.
Project Rulicon was actually the second attempt. The process was field tested in north-west
New Mexico in 1967 as Project Gasbuggy.
But two failures weren’t enough. In 1973, a different gas company tried again
northwest of Rifle. This time, they used
three 33-ton nuclear devices. Because surely, if they more than doubled the
explosive force, the radiation would all be trapped. Except, it wasn’t.
Also, the public was getting more vocal about their distrust
of nuclear power.
The nuclear solution was shelved and gas companies focused
on hydraulic fracturing instead, using water, solvents and sand instead of
nuclear bombs.
Bibliography:
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM9ZRR_Project_Rulison_Parachute_CO
Owen, David. Where
the Water Goes . Riverhead
Books, New York. 2017
