PROGRESS IN NUCLEAR EXCAVATION TECHNOLOGY

SEVERAL EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED DURING THE PAST YEAR IN THE PLOWSHARE PROGRAM AND OTHER DEVELOPMENTS RELATED TO NUCLEAR CRATERING ARE DESCRIBED. NEWLY DEVELOPED CRATERING CURVES IN ALLUVIUM AND BASALT ROCK ARE PRESENTED, BASED ON SEVERAL HIGH-EXPLOSIVE CRATERING PROGRAMS. PROGRESS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A THEORETICAL MODEL OF CRATERING IS SUMMARIZED. ALSO DESCRIBED IS A RECENT INVESTIGATION INTO THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF SUBSIDENCE CRATERS PRODUCED BY VERY DEEPLY BURIED DETONATIONS IN ALLUVIUM. HIGH-EXPLOSIVE ROW CHARGE DETONATIONS TO PRODUCE CHANNELS ARE PRESENTED. RESULTS FROM THE DUGOUT EXPERIMENT, THE FIRST ROW CHARGE CRATERING DETONATION IN ROCK, INDICATED THAT MANY OF THE CONCEPTS DEVELOPED FOR ROW CHARGES IN ALLUVIUM ARE ALSO VALID IN A HARD ROCK MEDIUM. TWO INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE SURVIVAL OF CRATERS UNDER THE ACTION OF NATURAL AND DYNAMIC FORCES ARE DESCRIBED, AND ECONOMICS OF NUCLEAR EXCAVATION ARE PRESENTED USING NEWLY RELEASED AEC CHARGES FOR NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVES. ADVANCEMENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LOW-FISSION THERMONUCLEAR EXPLOSIVES IS EXPECTED TO REDUCE RADIOACTIVITY LEVELS CONSIDERABLY BELOW 1962 SEDAN LEVELS. /AUTHOR/

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrr/1966/107/107-005.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Nordyke, Milo D
  • Circeo, Louis J
• Publication Date: 1966

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 54-65
• Monograph Title: Nuclear applications
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Record
  • Issue Number: 107
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alluvium; Basalt; Cratering; Detonation; Development; Economic analysis; Explosives; Mathematical models; Nuclear engineering; Nuclear excavation; Radioactivity; Reduction (Chemistry); Subsidence (Geology); Theory
• Uncontrolled Terms: Models
• Old TRIS Terms: Dugout experiment; Explosive charges; Nuclear applications; Plowshare experiments; Reduction; Rows
• Subject Areas: Economics; Geotechnology; Highways; Materials;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00215792
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Nov 18 1994 12:00AM