My love of the ridiculously unsafe has once more been satisfied in this, the beginning of a new series playfully called: When using too much explosives is fun. I give you Project Plowshare. A program devised by the Americans to use atomic bombs as excavation tools.
No doubt the military tests, over 300 alone just in the United States, gave engineers something to think about. At the very least the damn bombs left great big holes in the ground. Seizing on the opportunity to pacify their guilt and perhaps use atomic bombs to give back to society, the engineers and scientists said "Whoa, look how many construction workers lives we can spare by creating and instant hole in the ground the size of a university."
In actual fact the bombs did work well for earth moving uses, it not only moved the earth but vapourized a good bit of it and deposited the rest in the atmosphere too, reducing the need to find a place to put the stuff.
One of the projects considered was replacing the Panama Canal. It had simply become too narrow and slow. The canals locks proved cumbersome and prone to repairs. The idea was to create a sea level canal (no lifting the boats up and then floating them on to the other side). By using atomic bomb excavation the canal could be cut through anywhere in the area regardless of terrain and it would be much wider and deeper.
Beginning in 1950, Project Plowshare seriously examined sites all over Central America until deciding on Darien province in Panama. It was 45 miles across Atlantic to Pacific at this point and scientists figured on a couple of dozen really big atomic bombs would soften the ground enough to auger out a canal.
This project was seriously considered. Only the test ban treaty of 1962, which halted all testing, actually stopped it. Engineers needed to do more testing before beginning excavation. Various other test bans came and went with no real progress on this idea, but Project Plowshare wasn't officially closed until 1977.
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