...and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Micah 4:3
With the end of World War II and the onset of the Cold War, America embarked on an ambitious program to ensure the nation's preeminence in the nuclear arms race. To this end Edward Teller and the Atomic Energy Commission detonated hundreds of nuclear devices underwater, underground, and in the atmosphere. Weapons development remained paramount, but the AEC also held a mandate to develop peaceful uses for atomic power. In 1957 California's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory launched an experimental program called Operation Plowshare to use nuclear energy for such applications as power plants, medicine, mining, the extraction of oil and natural gas, and for the excavation of canals, harbors and roadways. Under Plowshare, a 1963 feasibility study was conducted for Project Carryall, a plan to realign the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad and provide a route for Interstate 40. 23 nuclear explosions totaling 1.8 Megatons were to be used to excavate 1 2-mile cut up to 350 feet deep through the Bristol Mountains east of Ludlow and remove 60 million cubic yards of rock. Despite many assurances of safety from the AEC, obvious environmental and health concerns over this and other Plowshare projects caused several postponements, and in 1968 the project was dropped completely. 28 nuclear tests were conducted under operation Plowshare before its termination in 1975.
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