Chagan (nuclear test) in Soviet Union 1965 was used to create a dam on Semipalatinsk river

Peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs) are nuclear explosions conducted for non-military purposes, such as activities related to economic development including the creation of canals. During the 1960s and 1970s, both the United States and the Soviet Union conducted a number of PNEs. Image File history File links Chagan_nuclear_test. ... Image File history File links Chagan_nuclear_test. ... Chagan nuclear test, not to be confused with Joe 1. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... It has been suggested that Nuclear explosive be merged into this article or section. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The Canal du Midi in Toulouse, France. ...

Six of the explosions by the Soviet Union are considered to have been of an applied nature, not just tests.

Subsequently the United States and the Soviet Union halted their programs. Definitions and limits are covered in the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty of 1976.

The Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty

In the PNE Treaty the signatories agreed: not to carry out any individual nuclear explosions having a yield exceeding 150 kilotons; not to carry out any group explosion (consisting of a number of individual explosions) having an aggregate yield exceeding 1,500 kilotons; and not to carry out any group explosion having an aggregate yield exceeding 150 kilotons unless the individual explosions in the group could be identified and measured by agreed verification procedures. The parties also reaffirmed their obligations to comply fully with the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963. // The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of energy discharged when the weapon is detonated, expressed usually in the equivalent mass of trinitrotoluene (TNT), either in kilotons (thousands of tons of TNT) or megatons (million of tons of TNT), but sometimes also in terajoules (1 kiloton of... A megaton or megatonne is a unit of mass equal to 1,000,000 metric tons, i. ... The Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space, and Under Water, often abbreviated as the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT), or Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (NTBT), although the former also refers to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), is a treaty...

The parties reserve the right to carry out nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes in the territory of another country if requested to do so, but only in full compliance with the yield limitations and other provisions of the PNE Treaty and in accord with the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a treaty, opened for signature on July 1, 1968, restricting the possession of nuclear weapons. ...

Articles IV and V of the PNE Treaty set forth the agreed verification arrangements. In addition to the use of national technical means, the Treaty states that information and access to sites of explosions will be provided by each side, and includes a commitment not to interfere with verification means and procedures.

The protocol to the PNE Treaty sets forth the specific agreed arrangements for ensuring that no weapon-related benefits precluded by the Threshold Test Ban Treaty are derived by carrying out a nuclear explosion used for peaceful purposes, including provisions for use of the hydrodynamic yield measurement method, seismic monitoring and on-site inspection. The Treaty on the Limitation of Underground Nuclear Weapon Tests, also known as the Threshold Test Ban Treaty (TTBT), was signed in July 1974. ... Hydrodynamics is fluid dynamics applied to liquids, such as water, alcohol, oil, and blood. ... Seismology (from the Greek seismos = earthquake and logos = word) is the scientific study of earthquakes and the movement of waves through the Earth. ...

The agreed statement that accompanies the Treaty specifies that a "peaceful application" of an underground nuclear explosion would not include the developmental testing of any nuclear explosive.

Operation Plowshare (USA)

One of the Chariot schemes involved chaining five thermonuclear devices to create the artificial harbor.

Operation Plowshare, not to be confused with the anti-nuclear Plowshares Movement, was the overall term of the U.S. portion of the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions project. Twenty-eight nuclear shots were conducted between 1961 and 1973. One of the first plowshare nuclear blast cratering proposals that came close to being carried out was Project Chariot, which would have used several hydrogen bombs 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. Image File history File links Project_Chariot_plans. ... The 1962 Sedan plowshares shot displaced 12 million tons of earth and created a crater 320 feet deep and 1,280 feet wide. ... Daniel Berrigan (Born May 9, 1921) is an internationally renowned peace activist and Roman Catholic priest. ... For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1973 calendar). ... Operation Chariot was a 1958 American proposal to construct an artificial harbor at Cape Thompson, Alaska by means of a nuclear explosion. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 lifted nuclear fallout some 18 km (60,000 feet) above the epicenter. ...

The largest excavation experiment took place in 1962 at the Department of Energy's Nevada Test Site. The so-called Sedan test displaced 12 million tons of earth, creating the largest man-made crater in the world; it also generated a vast amount of fallout that drifted beyond Nevada and over Utah. Explosions in oil and gas fields did indeed stimulate production, but in some cases they also made the fuel so radioactive that it could not be used. 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government responsible for energy policy and nuclear safety. ... November 1951 nuclear test at Nevada Test Site. ... Storax Sedan explosion The Sedan crater. ... Fallout may refer to: Nuclear fallout Half-Life Fallout a Half-Life fan site. ... Official language(s) None Capital Carson City Largest city Las Vegas Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 7th 286,367 km² 519 km 788 km 0. ... Official language(s) English Capital Salt Lake City Largest city Salt Lake City Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 13th 219,887 km² 435 km 565 km 3. ... Oil is a generic term for organic liquids that are not miscible with water. ... A gas is one of the four main phases of matter (after solid and liquid, and followed by plasma), that subsequently appear as a solid material is subjected to increasingly higher temperatures. ... Radioactive decay is the set of various processes by which unstable atomic nuclei (nuclides) emit subatomic particles. ...

After spending estimated at more than $770 million USD, funding for the project ended in 1977. No nuclear blast has been used for a commercial purpose in the United States to date. (2006) For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ...

Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy (USSR)

The Soviet Union conducted a much more vigorous program of 156 nuclear tests, some with multiple devices, between 1965 and 1988 under the auspices of Program No. 6 and Program No. 7-Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy. Its aims and results were similar to those of the American effort, with the exception that many of the shots were considered to be of an applied nature, that is they were not tests per se. The best known of these in the West was the Chagan test in January of 1965 as radioactivity from the Chagan test was detected over Japan by both the U.S. and Japan in apparent violation of the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT). The United States complained to the Soviets, but the matter was dropped. 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy was a Soviet program to investigate peaceful uses of nuclear weapons (PNEs). ... Chagan nuclear test, not to be confused with Joe 1. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... The Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space, and Under Water, often abbreviated as the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT), Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT), or Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (NTBT), although the former also refers to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), is a treaty...

There are proponents for continuing the PNE programs in modern Russia. They (e.g. A. Koldobsky) state that the program already paid for itself and saved the USSR billions of roubles and can save even more if continued. They also allege that the PNE is the only feasible way to put out large fountains and fires on natural gas deposits and the safest and economically viable way to destroy chemical weapons. Dressing the wounded during a gas attack by Austin O. Spare, 1918. ...

Their opponents (include the academician A.V. Yablokov) [1] state that all PNE technologies have non-nuclear alternatives and that many PNEs actually caused nuclear disasters.

Other nations

Germany at one time considered manufacturing nuclear explosives for civil engineering purposes. In the early 1970s a feasiblity study was conducted for a project to build a canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Qattara Depression in the Western Desert of Egypt using nuclear demolition. This project proposed to use 213 devices, with yields of 1 to 1.5 megatons detonated at depths of 100 to 500 m, to build this canal for the purpose of producing hydroelectric power. Satellite image The Mediterranean Sea is a part of the Atlantic Ocean almost completely enclosed by land, on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia. ... The Qattara Depression (local: Munkhafad al-Qattarah) is a desert basin within the Libyan Desert of north-western Egypt. ...

The Smiling Buddha, India’s first explosive nuclear device was typified by the Indian Government as a peaceful nuclear explosion; however, most of the international community thought that the test was mainly a weapons test. The Smiling Buddha was the first test fission explosion by India on May 18, 1974. ... The Government of India, officially referred to as the Union Government, and commonly as Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of a federal union of 28 states and 7 union territories, collectively called Republic of India. ...

While China has yet to claim any of its tests were for civilian purposes, it has been adamant in demanding that nuclear treaties (that it takes part in) explicitly permit this type of activity.

Space Travel

Nuclear explosions have been studied as a possible method of spacecraft propulsion. The most well known example was Project Orion, which studied the possibility of a spacecraft propelled by the detonation of nuclear devices which it released behind itself. An artists conception of the NASA reference design for Project Orion This article is about Project Orion the spacecraft propulsion project. ...

External links

• On the Soviet nuclear program
• On the Soviet program for peaceful uses of nuclear weapons, American Office of Scientific and Technical Information
• United States Nuclear Tests, July 1945 through September 1992 (DOE/NV-209 [Rev.14]).
• ARMS CONTROL AGREEMENTS,Federation of American Scientists
• World Reaction to the Indian Nuclear Tests, Center for Nonproliferation Studies
• Nuclear Files.org Treaty between the USA and USSR on underground nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes
• 1973 Time Magazine article about various peaceful American uses of nuclear explosions