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Re: Mountain Pass by Car
Author: Stevo del Applegato
Date: 07-04-2020 - 08:16
To correct a statement that was posted earlier in this thread, nuclear explosives were never used in U.S. highway construction.
Under the then AEC, "Operation Plowshare" ran from about 1961 to 1977. It was devised to oversee various peacetime uses for nuclear devices. Under the umbrella of Operation Plowshare, there were 28 or so actual nuclear test detonations at the Nevada test site and elsewhere. In the mid 1960s, one of the proposed uses was called "Operation Carryall". It was proposed that 23 nuclear devices could be used to carve out a new right of way for the Santa Fe RR and the ongoing construction of Interstate 40 through the Bristol Mountains in the Mojave desert.
Though the cost estimates for excavation using nuclear devices was substantially less than conventional methods, mounting public opposition doomed the project.
The final excavation work was performed by conventional (non-nuclear) high explosives.
SdeA
Under the then AEC, "Operation Plowshare" ran from about 1961 to 1977. It was devised to oversee various peacetime uses for nuclear devices. Under the umbrella of Operation Plowshare, there were 28 or so actual nuclear test detonations at the Nevada test site and elsewhere. In the mid 1960s, one of the proposed uses was called "Operation Carryall". It was proposed that 23 nuclear devices could be used to carve out a new right of way for the Santa Fe RR and the ongoing construction of Interstate 40 through the Bristol Mountains in the Mojave desert.
Though the cost estimates for excavation using nuclear devices was substantially less than conventional methods, mounting public opposition doomed the project.
The final excavation work was performed by conventional (non-nuclear) high explosives.
SdeA
