AcknowledgementsExecutive Summary, Plowshare ProgramIntroductionHistorical DevelopmentTesting PeriodPlowshare TerminationTable I. PLOWSHARE NUCLEAR TESTSTable II. PLOWSHARE NON-NUCLEAR EXPERIMENTSTable III. PROPOSED PLOWSHARE PROJECTSFigure 1. Plowshare Nuclear Test LocationsFigure 2. Nevada Test Site Plowshare Nuclear Test LocationsFigure 3. Plowshare Non- Nuclear Experiment LocationsAPPENDIX, Plowshare ChronologyA. Program MilestonesB. Nuclear Tests and Non-Nuclear ExperimentsC. Proposed ProjectsiAcknowledgementsThe U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office, Office of Public Affairs andInformation, acknowledges the contribution of Dr. William C. Beck, Belfort Engineering& Environmental Services, Incorporated, for providing historical information for thispublication; Patricia Nolan Bodin, Janine M. Ford, Sandra A. Smith and Warren S. Udy,U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office, Office of Public Affairs andInformation; Beverly A. Bull, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Richard Reed,Remote Sensing Laboratory (operated by Bechtel Nevada); Carole Schoengold, MarthaDeMarre, Coordination and Information Center (operated by Bechtel Nevada); LorettaBush, Technical Information Resource Center (operated by Bechtel Nevada).1Executive SummaryPlowshare ProgramIntroductionThe United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), now the Department of Energy(DOE), established the Plowshare Program as a research and development activity toexplore the technical and economic feasibility of using nuclear explosives for industrialapplications. The reasoning was that the relatively inexpensive energy available fromnuclear explosions could prove useful for a wide variety of peaceful purposes. ThePlowshare Program began in 1958 and continued through 1975. Between December 1961and May 1973, the United States conducted 27 Plowshare nuclear explosive testscomprising 35 individual detonations.Conceptually, industrial applications resulting from the use of nuclear explosives could bedivided into two broad categories: 1) large-scale excavation and quarrying, where theenergy from the explosion was used to break up and/or move rock; and 2) undergroundengineering, where the energy released from deeply buried nuclear explosives increasedthe permeability and porosity of the rock by massive breaking and fracturing.Possible excavation applications included: canals, harbors, highway and railroad cutsthrough mountains, open pit mining, construction of dams, and other quarry andconstruction-related projects. Underground nuclear explosion applications included:stimulation of natural gas production, preparation of leachable ore bodies for in situleaching, creation of underground zones of fractured oil shale for in situ retorting, andformation of underground natural gas and petroleum storage reservoirs. Historical DevelopmentThe concept of using nuclear explosives for peaceful purposes was first discussed early inthe nuclear weapons development program even before the first successful nucleardetonation. In the 1950s, while the U.S. was developing nuclear weapons during the ColdWar for defense purposes, some scientists and government-agency personnel wereanxious to pursue a program that would use the power of nuclear explosives for peacefulpurposes. Lewis L. Strauss, Chairman of the AEC from 1953-1958, expressed someinterest in this idea. However, it was not until November 1956 that Herbert York, then the2director of Lawrence Radiation Laboratory - Livermore (LRL-L), now part of LawrenceLivermore National Laboratory, proposed that scientists from LRL-L, along with those fromLos Alamos and Sandia laboratories, now Los Alamos National Laboratory and SandiaNational Laboratories, respectively, held a classified conference to discuss the possibilitiesof using energy unleashed by nuclear explosions to produce power, dig excavations, andproduce isotopes. The AEC approved this conference that was held at Livermore inFebruary 1957 where discussions ensued on using clean nuclear explosive devices forindustrial uses. The AEC foresaw some problems with this program because weaponsdesign characteristics for peaceful-use devices and those for weapons use were verysimilar, and declassification of this information was not possible. Since the nucleardevices developed for industrial uses would eventually have to be made available tocivilian industry, it was decided, in order to control access to classified design information, that the whole program would be conducted at the Secret level. With AEC approval, thePlowshare Program was established in the Division of Military Application (DMA) in June. By July 1957, LRL-L had formally established the Plowshare Project to investigatenonmilitary applications of nuclear devices, and LRL-L scientists, most notably Dr. EdwardTeller, were advocating expansion of the project with proposed increased budgets for 1958through 1960.The successful execution of the RAINIER test on September 19, 1957, the first U.S.nuclear detonation to be contained underground, provided data on possible undergroundengineering applications of nuclear explosions. This test, by providing the first informationconcerning the possible use of underground nuclear explosions for nonmilitary purposes,was an impetus for LRL-L scientists to press for expansion of the Plowshare Project for1958 and beyond. The AEC’s interest in Plowshare increased, and subsequently, theprogram scope and budget were also increased.On June 6, 1958, the Atomic Energy Commission publicly announced the establishment ofthe Plowshare Program, named for the biblical injunction to ensure peace by beatingswords into plowshares.“And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and theirspears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up swordagainst nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”The Program objective was to use nuclear explosives for civilian as opposed to militarypurposes. The AEC San Francisco Operations Office (SAN) Special Projects Groupprovided the oversight management for Plowshare with support efforts from the AEC3Albuquerque and Oak Ridge Offices, Sandia, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S.Bureau of Mines. On October 31, 1958, the U.S. and the Soviet Union entered into anuclear weapons testing moratorium. No nuclear tests were conducted for almost threeyears. During that time, Plowshare planning studies and high explosive tests would beconducted to evaluate excavation techniques. By the