Editing Project Plowshare (section)

== Proposals ==
[[Image:Project Chariot plans.jpg|thumb|One of the ''Chariot'' schemes involved chaining five thermonuclear devices to create an artificial harbor.]]{{Multiple image
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[[File:Trans-isthmian canal routes (13386826633).jpg|thumb|Plowshare's proposed canals near the Panama Canal.]]
Proposed uses for nuclear explosives under Project Plowshare included widening the [[Panama Canal]], constructing a new sea-level waterway through [[Nicaragua]] nicknamed the Pan-Atomic Canal, cutting paths through mountainous areas for highways, and connecting inland river systems. Other proposals involved blasting caverns for water, natural gas, and petroleum storage.  Serious consideration was also given to using these explosives for various mining operations. One proposal suggested using nuclear blasts to connect underground [[aquifer]]s in [[Arizona]].  Another plan involved surface blasting on the western slope of [[California]]'s [[Sacramento Valley]] for a water transport project.<ref name="bks2011" />

One of the first serious cratering proposals that came close to being carried out was [[Operation Chariot (1958)|Project Chariot]], which would have used several [[hydrogen bomb]]s to create an artificial harbor at [[Cape Thompson, Alaska]]. It was never carried out due to concerns for the native populations and the fact that there was little potential use for the harbor to justify its risk and expense.<ref>{{Citation | last = O'Neill | first = Dan | year = 2007 | orig-year = 1995 | title = The Firecracker Boys: H-Bombs, Inupiat Eskimos, and the Roots of the Environmental Movement | place = New York | publisher = Basic Books | isbn = 978-0-465-00348-8 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_p6n8 }}</ref>

[[Project Carryall]],<ref>{{cite journal | url = http://pubsindex.trb.org/document/view/default.asp?lbid=110048 | title =Preliminary Design Studies In A Nuclear Excavation — Project Carryall | journal =Highway Research Record |publisher= Highway Research Board | year=1964 |issue=50 |pages= 32–39 |access-date= August 17, 2016| last1 =Fry | first1 =J. G. | last2 =Stane | first2 =R. A. | last3 =Crutchfield Jr | first3 =W. H. }}</ref> proposed in 1963 by the [[United States Atomic Energy Commission|Atomic Energy Commission]], the California Division of Highways (now [[Caltrans]]), and the [[Santa Fe Railway]], would have used 22 nuclear explosions to excavate a massive roadcut through the [[Bristol Mountains]] in the [[Mojave Desert]], to accommodate construction of [[Interstate 40]] and a new rail line.<ref name=bks2011/>

A project proposed in a 1963 memorandum by [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]] would have used 520 2-megaton nuclear explosions to excavate a canal through the [[Negev Desert]] in Israel at an estimated cost of $575 million ($5 billion in 2021), to serve as an alternative route to the [[Suez Canal]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.osti.gov/opennet/servlets/purl/453701.pdf|title=Use of Nuclear Explosives for Excavation of Sea-Level Canal Across the Negev Desert|last=Maccabee|first=H. D.|publisher=United States Office of Scientific and Technical Information|date=1 July 1963|access-date=2 April 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/us-planned-suez-canal-alternative-israel-blast-with-nuclear-bombs-1960s-2021-3|last=Guenot|first=Marianne|title=The US had a plan in the 1960s to blast an alternative Suez Canal through Israel using 520 nuclear bombs|publisher=Insider|date=25 March 2021|access-date=2 April 2021}}</ref>

At the end of the program, a major objective was to develop nuclear explosives, and blast techniques, for stimulating the flow of natural gas in "tight" underground reservoir formations. In the 1960s, a proposal was suggested for a modified ''in situ'' [[shale oil extraction]] process which involved creation of a [[rubble]] chimney (a zone in the [[oil shale formation]] created by breaking the rock into fragments) using a [[nuclear explosive]].<ref name= chimney>{{Cite journal | last1 = Lombard| first1 = DB | last2 =Carpenter|first2=HC |title=Recovering Oil by Retorting a Nuclear Chimney in Oil Shale |journal = Journal of Petroleum Technology | volume = 19 |publisher=Society of Petroleum Engineers |pages= 727–734 |issue= 6 |year = 1967| doi = 10.2118/1669-PA |doi-access = free }}</ref>  However, this approach was abandoned for a number of technical reasons.