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The Ten Most Bizarre Ideas For Using Nuclear Weapons
io9 ^ | 5-20-14 | Mark Strauss

Posted on 05/20/2014 11:29:20 AM PDT by Malone LaVeigh

When you're a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. And if you have several thousand nuclear warheads just lying around, it seems a shame not to put them to good use. Here are ten of the most bizarre proposals for nuclear bomb use over the decades.

(Excerpt) Read more at io9.com ...


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KEYWORDS: nukes
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I've heard of several of these ideas before. 3) Shoot the Moon, was something I saw suggested on a blog years ago. I thought it was a joke. Guess not.
1 posted on 05/20/2014 11:29:20 AM PDT by Malone LaVeigh
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To: Malone LaVeigh

I have a not-so-bizarre idea for how to use about six of them. See if you can guess what it is.


2 posted on 05/20/2014 11:30:19 AM PDT by Steely Tom (How do you feel about robbing Peter's robot?)
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To: Malone LaVeigh

Didn’t the Soviets or Eat Germans use nukes for earth works, back in the day?


3 posted on 05/20/2014 11:30:48 AM PDT by mbarker12474
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To: Steely Tom

Is “reducing the worldwide Muslim threat” one of them?


4 posted on 05/20/2014 11:32:50 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: mbarker12474
We had a plan for using 50 or so 200kt nukes to create a larger, longer "new" Panama Canal through the lakes of Niceruagua IIRC. The studies concluded that there would be minimal radation effects because of the depths of the explosion and the impermiable sediment.

Basically, they were going bottom dredge using nukes.

5 posted on 05/20/2014 11:33:27 AM PDT by DCBryan1 (No realli, moose bytes can be quite nasti!! (Keeper of the Sick Individuals pinglist))
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To: Malone LaVeigh

What about intercepting an asteroid and destroying it in space before it collides with the earth.


6 posted on 05/20/2014 11:33:47 AM PDT by Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
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To: Malone LaVeigh

Is this a slideshow? If so, not worth the click.


7 posted on 05/20/2014 11:34:43 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: Malone LaVeigh

Why not just use them first and THEN figure out the best way to exploit the holes? I’m thinking of a really massive glass skateboard park right around Mecca...


8 posted on 05/20/2014 11:35:50 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: mbarker12474

It was a the Soviets, to seal a well gone wild, if I recall correctly...

Anyway, that was the rumor...

The Eat Germans, never ate much of anything....lol


9 posted on 05/20/2014 11:36:13 AM PDT by Cold Heat (Have you reached your breaking point yet? If not now....then when?)
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To: DCBryan1
Niceruagua

Holy guacamole! Nicaragua

10 posted on 05/20/2014 11:38:02 AM PDT by DCBryan1 (No realli, moose bytes can be quite nasti!! (Keeper of the Sick Individuals pinglist))
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To: Malone LaVeigh

One meant to explode over a southern city during an EMP drill.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread983927/pg1


11 posted on 05/20/2014 11:39:45 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: DCBryan1

You almost got stuned in Tiajunna with a beeber-like devise.


12 posted on 05/20/2014 11:40:10 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: Trapped Behind Enemy Lines
Interestingly, it was discovered you didn't need to completely destroy the asteroid to change its potential collision course with Earth. They could have used a relatively low yield (around 25-30 kT) nuclear bomb to "nudge" the trajectory to completely missing the Earth if the bomb was detonated on the asteroid when the object was still far away.
13 posted on 05/20/2014 11:40:45 AM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: Malone LaVeigh

11. Detonate several nuclear devices at various points around the globe in order to increase the amount of particulate matter in the stratosphere and thereby help reduce global warming.


14 posted on 05/20/2014 11:42:09 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: Trapped Behind Enemy Lines

“What about intercepting an asteroid and destroying it in space before it collides with the earth.”

We no longer possess a rocket with sufficient umph to get out far enough. Also, the thing that makes them so useful for destroying things is the atmosphere. With only vacuum you’d actually have to dig a hole in the asteroid. Then, you’d need a big enough nuke to blow the debris really far away or it would all hit in roughly the same spot anyway. X billion tons of rock hitting in lots of places will be just as bad or worse than the same x billion tons hitting in one spot. (Also, I think Bruce Willis is too old to pull this off. As are all the other “action” stars. So, we have nobody to do it.)


15 posted on 05/20/2014 11:42:14 AM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: Malone LaVeigh

“”Project Chariot” was the code name the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) gave to a 1958 plan to create an instant harbor on the coast of Alaska by detonating thermonuclear bombs.”

Yep, if there is one thing Alaska lacks is harbors on its 7,000 mile coastline.


16 posted on 05/20/2014 11:42:36 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Haven't you lost enough freedoms? Support an end to the WOD now.)
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To: Malone LaVeigh
12) Activate Operation Smoking Turban.
17 posted on 05/20/2014 11:43:35 AM PDT by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: WayneS

That’s funny raht dere...


18 posted on 05/20/2014 11:43:58 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Malone LaVeigh

11) Home self defense.


19 posted on 05/20/2014 11:43:59 AM PDT by glorgau
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To: mbarker12474
Here ya go.

All together, the Program 7 conducted 115 nuclear explosions. Among them:

39 explosions for the purpose of geological exploration (trying to find new natural gas deposits by studying seismic waves produced by small nuclear explosions)

25 explosions for intensification of oil and gas debits

22 explosions for creating underground storage for natural gas

5 explosions for extinguishing large natural gas fountains

4 explosions for creating channels and dams (including the Chagan test in Kazakhstan, and the Taiga test on the potential route of the Pechora-Kama Canal)

2 explosions for crushing ore in open-pit mines

2 explosions for creating underground storage for toxic wastes

1 explosion to facilitate coal mining in an underground mine 19 explosions were performed for research purposes (studying possible migration of the radioactivity from the place of the explosions).

These explosions were financed by various ministries: 51 explosions were financed by the Ministry for Geology, 26 explosions were financed by the Ministry for Natural Gas, 13 explosions were financed by the Ministry for Oil, 19 explosions were financed by the MinSredMash itself (the predecessor of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency). There were two large explosions of 140 kilotons and 105 kilotons; all others were relatively small with an average yield of 12.5 kilotons. For example, one 30 kiloton explosion was used to close the Uzbekistan Urtabulak gas well in 1966 that had been blowing since 1963, and a few months later a 47 kiloton explosive was used to seal a higher pressure blowout at the nearby Pamuk gas field, successful experiments later cited as possible precedents for stopping the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[3][4][5][6]

The last nuclear explosion by the Program 7, codenamed Rubin-1 was performed in Arkhangelsk oblast on September 6, 1988. The explosion was a part of a seismic program for geological exploration. The Soviets agreed to stop their PNE program at the end of 1988 as a result of then president Mikhail Gorbachev's disarmament initiative.

There are proponents for continuing the PNE programs in modern Russia. They (e.g. A. Koldobsky) state that the program has already paid for itself and saved the USSR billions of rubles and can save even more if it would continue. They also allege that the PNE is the only feasible way to put out large fountains and fires on natural gas deposits, and it is the safest and most economically viable way to destroy chemical weapons.

20 posted on 05/20/2014 11:44:05 AM PDT by Cold Heat (Have you reached your breaking point yet? If not now....then when?)
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