WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: en 00:00:08.001 --> 00:00:12.000 To bring water and food where there is only parts stirred. 00:00:13.001 --> 00:00:17.000 And people where there is desolation. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:26.000 To bring freedom of movement where there are imposing barriers. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:31.001 And commerce where nature has decreed there will be isolation. 00:00:35.001 --> 00:00:41.001 To bring forth a wealth of materials where there are 00:00:41.001 --> 00:00:43.000 vast untapped resources. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:47.001 And a wealth of knowledge where there is uncertainty. 00:00:49.001 --> 00:00:53.001 To perform a multitude of peaceful tasks for the betterment of mankind. 00:00:53.001 --> 00:00:58.001 Man is exploring a source of enormous, potentially useful energy. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:02.000 The nuclear explosion. 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:14.000 He sees the 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:16.000 potentials and he sees the problems. 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:20.000 To investigate both and to develop the technology that will 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:21.001 turn potentials into realities. 00:01:21.001 --> 00:01:27.000 The United States is conducting for the benefit of all nations a program 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:28.001 it calls Plowshare. 00:01:38.001 --> 00:01:48.001 Today this scene of preparation for a peaceful nuclear explosion 00:01:48.001 --> 00:01:50.001 is at an experimental site. 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:56.000 Tomorrow when the potential of nuclear explosives is fulfilled, this scene will 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:59.001 move to the site for a new harbor, canal, or mountain pass. 00:02:00.001 --> 00:02:06.001 A mine, oil field, gas reservoir, or water storage basin, or perhaps 00:02:06.001 --> 00:02:08.001 a new underground laboratory. 00:02:09.001 --> 00:02:13.001 Whatever the site and wherever in the world it might be, the experts 00:02:13.001 --> 00:02:16.001 participating in the event will be the same as they are here. 00:02:17.001 --> 00:02:19.001 Engineers, scientists, public health authorities. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.001 But eventually the badges of national government will give way except for control 00:02:24.001 --> 00:02:28.001 of the explosive to the hard hats of industry and public works personnel. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.000 Using this new power tool for their own applications under 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:34.000 established safety regulations. 00:02:37.001 --> 00:02:43.000 This is the day of reality that 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:45.000 Plowshare is working to fulfill. 00:02:45.001 --> 00:02:51.000 When it can deliver to mankind a proven tool and a proven technology. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:00.000 Mankind wears many faces lined with suffering from many different hardships. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:04.000 But there is a basic frustrating problem common to all. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.001 Many of mankind's pressing needs can be accomplished only by undertaking earth 00:03:09.001 --> 00:03:14.000 -breaking and earth-moving projects that are too large or too costly 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:15.001 with today's energy systems. 00:03:18.001 --> 00:03:23.000 Man has performed useful tasks with conventional explosives for centuries. 00:03:24.001 --> 00:03:27.000 But he has recognized and lived with their limitations. 00:03:29.001 --> 00:03:33.000 He knows that a conventional chemical explosion releases the energy that 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:34.001 bonds atoms into molecules. 00:03:35.001 --> 00:03:40.000 But he also knows now that there is a far greater source of 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:41.001 energy within the atom itself. 00:03:41.001 --> 00:03:45.001 The energy that holds together the heart of the atom is nucleus. 00:03:46.001 --> 00:03:49.000 This is the energy released in a nuclear explosion. 00:03:50.001 --> 00:03:56.000 Energy so enormous that man must express the yield or energy release of nuclear 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:02.000 explosives in terms of the tons, thousands of tons or millions of tons of TNT 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:05.000 required to produce an equal amount of explosive energy. 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:12.000 But in grasping the full potential of peaceful nuclear explosives, man looks not 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:16.000 only to their great energy but also to their relative size and cost. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:22.001 He sees that a 10 kiloton nuclear explosive, for example, could be as small as 15 00:04:22.001 --> 00:04:25.000 inches in diameter and three feet long. 00:04:25.001 --> 00:04:28.001 The price would be about 350,000 dollars. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:35.000 The equivalent 10,000 tons of TNT would fill a sphere about 73 feet in diameter 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:38.001 with a price tag of about 5 million dollars. 00:04:40.001 --> 00:04:46.000 Furthermore, if he increases the nuclear yield 200 times up to 2 megatons, the 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:50.000 package is only about 2 feet greater in diameter and 7 feet longer. 00:04:50.001 --> 00:04:52.000 And the price barely doubles. 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:58.000 To increase the yield of the TNT 200 times, he would have to increase the size of 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:03.001 the explosive 200 times, ending up with a pile of TNT weighing 2 million tons, 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:06.000 which would fill a coliseum twice. 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:11.001 And at the same time, the price of the TNT would increase 200 times up to 00:05:11.001 --> 00:05:13.000 more than 1 billion dollars. 00:05:16.001 --> 00:05:22.000 Enormous energy, relatively inexpensive, compact and easily transportable. 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:27.001 This is the new power tool that Plowshare would add to man's resources of useful 00:05:27.001 --> 00:05:32.000 energy, to do jobs never before practical or even possible. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:38.001 Man had speculated on the peaceful potentials of nuclear explosives even 00:05:38.001 --> 00:05:40.000 before using them in time of war. 00:05:40.001 --> 00:05:46.000 It wasn't until the mid-1950s, however, that definite plans began to take shape. 00:05:47.001 --> 00:05:51.000 The United States Atomic Energy Commission was already conducting the Atoms for 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:56.001 Peace program to benefit the health and welfare of men everywhere, developing, 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:01.001 encouraging, and supervising the peaceful uses of nuclear radiation in science, 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:07.000 medicine, industry, and agriculture, and of nuclear 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:08.001 power for generating electricity. 00:06:11.001 --> 00:06:17.001 In 1957, the Commission expanded Atoms for Peace with a New Program, peaceful 00:06:17.001 --> 00:06:22.000 nuclear explosives. The program borrowed its name from words of the prophet 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:26.001 Isaiah, in keeping with its goal, to beat the destructive blade of the nuclear 00:06:26.001 --> 00:06:30.001 sword into a plowshare that would cut deep into the earth for 00:06:30.001 --> 00:06:32.000 the betterment of all mankind. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:38.001 Overall technical responsibility for Plowshare is assigned to the Atomic Energy 00:06:38.001 --> 00:06:42.001 Commission's Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Livermore, operated by the 00:06:42.001 --> 00:06:46.001 University of California. The specialized resources of other Commission 00:06:46.001 --> 00:06:51.000 laboratories are also brought into the Plowshare effort for major research and 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:56.001 development work, plus the special capabilities of various government agencies, 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:02.000 private industries, and educational institutions. The task that faces the 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:08.000 Plowshare team is to explore and develop safe, efficient nuclear explosives, and 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:14.001 a practical effective way to use them, safety and technology, the two 00:07:14.001 --> 00:07:17.000 inseparable parts of the Plowshare program. 00:07:18.001 --> 00:07:22.000 To accomplish this imposing task involves more than 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:23.001 conducting new field experiments. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:28.000 It involves delving deep into the storehouse of knowledge man has collected on 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:34.000 explosive technology and safety, centuries of mankind's experience with chemical 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:38.001 explosions, and more than 20 years of experience with nuclear explosions, 00:07:39.001 --> 00:07:45.000 hundreds of nuclear explosions set off in the atmosphere, in space, underwater, 00:07:45.001 --> 00:07:51.000 and underground, in a variety of climatic conditions. All of this explosive 00:07:51.000 --> 00:07:55.001 experience combines to give Plowshare the foundation for building its own 00:07:55.001 --> 00:08:00.001 specialized technology, and it provides the basis for safety standards that 00:08:00.001 --> 00:08:06.001 govern all of Plowshare's field experimentation. Before each experiment, experts 00:08:06.001 --> 00:08:13.000 in geology, seismology, hydrology, meteorology, radio biology, and many other 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:17.000 fields bring their specialized knowledge and equipment into the field. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:22.000 Working with public health authorities, they assure that this specific experiment 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:26.001 is being conducted within accepted safety standards. This same thorough 00:08:26.001 --> 00:08:31.001 investigation will precede the actual applications of nuclear explosions wherever 00:08:31.001 --> 00:08:38.001 and whenever they may be. What are these actual applications? Some 00:08:38.001 --> 00:08:43.000 will be dramatic in their effect as nuclear explosions move huge masses of earth 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:48.000 in excavation jobs, reshaping the geography of the land in dimensions never 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:53.001 before possible to meet the needs of man. Needs he can see as he struggles 00:08:53.001 --> 00:08:59.000 against the geography nature has pitted against him. The physical effects of 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:04.000 other nuclear explosions may never be seen by the people they serve, as the 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:08.001 explosions are set off deep underground to shatter large masses of rock in 00:09:08.001 --> 00:09:13.001 underground engineering jobs. Other nuclear explosions will be set off to harness 00:09:13.001 --> 00:09:20.000 the scientific purposes. 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:26.001 These will influence man more indirectly. He may never realize that his daily 00:09:26.001 --> 00:09:30.001 life has been bettered by the unique research investigations made possible with 00:09:30.001 --> 00:09:36.000 nuclear explosions. These are the types of applications that Plowshare is working 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:41.000 to make possible through research and experimentation in the laboratory and in 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:48.000 the field. The prelude to the full scientific exploitation of 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:53.000 nuclear explosions took place before the eyes of observers from nations all over 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:58.000 the world. It was the first field experiment of the Plowshare program, Project 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:04.001 NOL, December 1961, 25 miles southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:11.001 A three-kiloton nuclear explosive was detonated in a salt bed deep under the 00:10:11.001 --> 00:10:15.001 earth's surface at the end of this 1,000-foot-long access tunnel. 00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:33.000 Several months after the NOMA event, reporters and photographers gave the world 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:36.000 its first look at a nuclear blasted laboratory. 00:10:39.001 --> 00:10:46.001 In Plowshare, experts weathered the 140-degree heat to gather firsthand 00:10:46.001 --> 00:10:52.001 information of scientific significance. But even before this actual entrance into 00:10:52.001 --> 00:10:57.001 the cavity, instruments and earth samples had provided valuable scientific data. 00:10:59.001 --> 00:11:03.000 Earth motion studies made during the NOM explosion added to scientists' 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:06.001 understanding of the earth's structure throughout a large part of the United 00:11:06.001 --> 00:11:11.001 States. In a neutron physics experiment, scientists were able 00:11:11.001 --> 00:11:18.000 to calculate the mass produced in the explosion, an important 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:22.000 step in expanding man's fundamental knowledge of the structure of matter. 00:11:23.001 --> 00:11:28.000 Laboratory analysis of samples taken for isotope studies showed that nuclear 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:33.001 explosions are a new potential means of mass-producing radioactive isotopes to 00:11:33.001 --> 00:11:40.000 meet the expanding needs of science, medicine, industry, and agriculture. But 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:46.000 this was only the 00:11:46.001 --> 00:11:51.001 nuclear explosions, for it appears that man may now have within his reach a key 00:11:51.001 --> 00:11:56.000 to understanding many basic processes of nature. This key may be 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:58.000 forged by a nuclear explosion. 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:06.001 In 1964, important steps in this direction were taken in experiments with nuclear 00:12:06.001 --> 00:12:11.001 explosives specially designed to produce high-intensity neutron radiation, the 00:12:11.001 --> 00:12:17.000 specific characteristic that promotes isotope formation. In 100 millionth of a 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:22.000 second, more neutrons were released by each explosion than could be released over 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:27.001 decades in the most efficient nuclear reactor. The blast pumped these neutrons 00:12:27.001 --> 00:12:32.000 into targets of uranium, producing isotopes of very heavy elements beyond 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:38.000 uranium. Eventually, Plowsh air scientists hoped to use these heavier elements as 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:45.000 targets in new elements never before created 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:50.001 by man. This may be the key to answering basic questions about nature man has 00:12:50.001 --> 00:12:56.001 asked since the beginning of time. There is another question man seeks to answer, 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:03.001 a question that raises an even more pressing problem. How can the recovery of 00:13:03.001 --> 00:13:09.001 natural resources be increased to meet man's ever-growing needs? Plowsh air 00:13:09.001 --> 00:13:12.001 underground engineering may be one of the answers. 00:13:17.001 --> 00:13:21.001 Nuclear explosions deep underground break and splinter huge areas of rock. 00:13:22.001 --> 00:13:26.001 These massive effects may permit highly promising recovery of resources that have 00:13:26.001 --> 00:13:32.001 been impossible or economically impractical to extract from the earth. By digging 00:13:32.001 --> 00:13:37.000 tunnels deep into the explosive region, Plowsh air teams have been able to 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:40.001 examine and evaluate the effects of underground engineering with nuclear 00:13:40.001 --> 00:13:46.000 explosives. Effects achieved with various explosive yields in various types of 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:52.000 rock. Industries and research institutes in the United States and in various 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:55.001 parts of the world have recognized many potential uses for Plowsh 00:13:55.001 --> 00:13:57.001 air underground engineering. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:03.001 They can see how nuclear explosions could increase both the total recovery and 00:14:03.001 --> 00:14:09.000 the rate of recovery of vast natural gas and oil reserves by effectively breaking 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:14.001 the rock so that these valuable resources can flow through. They can see how 00:14:14.001 --> 00:14:19.000 copper could be extracted from the ground more efficiently as nuclear explosions 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:22.001 shatter the surrounding rock letting through the solutions that dissolve the 00:14:22.001 --> 00:14:27.001 copper and carry it to the surface. They can see how the huge area of broken and 00:14:27.001 --> 00:14:32.001 fractured rock could be used for receiving as well as releasing materials. For 00:14:32.001 --> 00:14:38.000 storing natural gas near its market area, for storing rainwater that could seep 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:43.001 down underground where it wouldn't evaporate, or even for disposing of chemical 00:14:43.001 --> 00:14:45.001 waste materials to underground formations. 00:14:47.001 --> 00:14:51.000 The mining industry has seen another significant potential 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:52.001 for underground nuclear engineering. 00:14:53.001 --> 00:14:58.000 This potential was actually demonstrated in simulated mining operations following 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:03.000 underground nuclear explosions. Nuclear explosions would break and crush mineral 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:08.000 deposits, perhaps more efficiently than ever before, prior to extracting the ore 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:10.001 by conventional underground mining techniques. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:19.000 Minerals, natural gas, oil, water, investigation and development continue with 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:24.000 government and industry working hand in hand to see exactly what role Plowsh air 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:28.000 underground engineering can play in developing these valuable natural resources.