there are other needs of man that can be measured in miles and acres miles of grueling travel over land and sea imposed by unfriendly terrain miles of hauling goods to distant four acres of potentially expanding economic and social needs of an ever expanding population can be met only by moving huge quantities of earth efficiently and economically for these immense  isolated and underdeveloped nuclear excavation arbors the potential for providing the practical economical me where present buy and travel is awkward costly time consuming and excavating harbor for the diversion of water cutting channels of great width and depth to carry water to areas that need nuclear activation also prevents great potential for industry for example in the quick and economic removal of earth overlying deeply buried mineral deposit the basics have been developing here excavation technology is to answer this question in order to produce a large crater was specific to mention in a specific earth formation what size explosive is required and how deeply should it be buried conventional explosives are routinely employed for construction and mining operations they have been used on occasion to remove massive obstructions to commerce a few years ago nuclear explosion in the hundreds of killer tons and the megaton ranges that will be needed for major earth moving project computers take these mathematical models theoretically fire nuclear explosives giving a picture three hundred and twenty five feet deep the height of a thirty two story building created in my time that it takes to describe it to clear up volume of rock the size of the sedan crater with conventional methods would require more than two thousand tons of chemical explosives and twenty five pieces of heavy earth moving machinery over a period of at least six months f m s like this have prompted experts to consider using nuclear explosive to do these immense tests never before economically feasible but as man looks to the potential is not overlooking the problem obviously the same characteristics that enable nuclear explosions to perform enormous useful tasks can also present hazards if they are not properly controlled particularly an excavation project these potential hazards except radioactivity are encountered to some degree even in large chemical explosion the results of power here work in controlling and limiting the radioactivity released by a nuclear explosion have been and continue to be highly encourage it scientists have already determined that when nuclear explosives are buried at the depths that will produce the biggest greater a major part of the radioactivity of swallowed up in the rubble of the crater but the most promising lead had been gained by improving the design of the hundred sixty two so then event for example only a small fraction of the radioactivity produced by the explosion was released to the atmosphere if so then were conducted with the improved design and techniques available today there would be even less radioactivity and more reduction is still expected a hundred fold reduction from the radioactivity levels of nine hundred sixty two through more improvement in explosive design and then placement techniques when this prediction is realized romain that the main limitation on nuclear excavation projects will not be radiation it will be the other potential hazards of explosions nuclear or conventional the ground sh and that that's plan just as with radiation these other safety problems are subject to control by some acting the minimum you necessary to do the job by a thoroughly examining the local or structure a local building by timing the event for the right weather conditions and by temporarily relocating people on life for each of these potential hazards is being carefully studied to determine the exact controls that will be needed in future large scale project rerouting rail road and highway traffic over the most direct path through the mojave desert saving countless dollars and man hours would mean cutting through an imposing barrier the breastbone mountain remain excavating a mountain pass two miles long moving sixty eight million cubic yards every this project a similar amount uncapped would be an effective demonstration of plowshares potential with rows of nuclear explosives all of the safety requirements can be met but there is no doubt that most applications for nuclear excavation would be not in the united states but in other countries the most dramatic example so far is in central america the blasting of a sea level now wait long hours to strain through the narrow complex lock system and others can't make it through it all before long it will be inadequate even before it was built half a century a the complexity and limitations of those loctite can now were realized men dreamed of a sea level canal but it remained a dream flower share may be able to make that dream a reality and it is being considered that for certain routes nuclear explosives could excavate the sea levels are now at one third the cost of conventional excavation and in considerably less time and the end result would be a much wider and much deeper channel a nuclear blast and route across central america could provide a navigable channel one thousand feet wide and up to two hundred feet deep in mid channel offering a virtually unlimited capacity no wonder this enormous project has so stimulated the imagination of the world for a canal of this immensity representing years of planning and development complex engineering and precise execution would be one of the greatest civil engineering feats of all time and so the planning and the search for more needed information go on as planned share builds toward the technology needed to accomplish the proposed projects we have seen or any other projects of equal magnitude basic results of peaceful nuclear explosions have been demonstrated in moving huge quantities of earth breaking in fracturing masses of rock deep underground and then providing man with new scientific knowledge but these results are still potentials and much work remains to be done before these potential can be turned into the reality is that will serve the specific needs of men in various parts of the world when any one of these specific applications comes to pass whenever that time and whatever the place it will mean that in experiments like the one being prepared for years the technology and safety of peaceful nuclear explosions have been thoroughly developed  demonstrated furthermore when nuclear explosives are chosen to do its job it will mean they are doing a large job cheaper than could be done with conventional methods or more likely it will mean they are doing an immense job that would be impractical because of time in cars or even impossible the conventional