Editing Project PACER (section)

{{Short description|1970s American fusion power project}}
[[File:Pacer-fusion-concept.jpg|thumb|Pacer fusion energy concept showing salt cavern where thermonuclear explosives are dropped to boil water and run a turbine]]
'''Project PACER''', carried out at [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] (LANL) in the mid-1970s, explored the possibility of a [[fusion power]] system that would involve exploding small [[H-bomb|hydrogen bomb]]s (fusion bombs)—or, as stated in a later proposal, [[fission bomb]]s—inside an underground cavity. Its proponents claimed{{sfn|Long|1976|p=24}} that the system is the only fusion power system that could be demonstrated to work using existing technology. It would also require a continuous supply of nuclear explosives and contemporary economics studies<ref>L.E. Elkins; R.L. Garwin; T. Greenwood; C. Hocott; H. Jacoby; G.W. Johnson; R. Morse; F.A. Long; Chairman. [https://rlg.fas.org/040075APNC%20Appendix%20C%20-%20%20Comparative%20Cost%20Analyses.pdf "Appendix C: Comparative Cost Analyses for Electric Power from Project Pacer"]. ''In: An Analysis of the Economic Feasibility, Technical Significance, and Time Scale for Application of Peaceful Nuclear Explosions in the U.S., with Special Reference to the GURC Report Thereon'', April 1975.</ref> demonstrated that these could not be produced at a competitive price compared to conventional energy sources.