The Firecracker Boys

February 1, 2005 8:09 AM

In 1958 The Plowshare Program, under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Commission, designated Ogotoruk Creek in Alaska as the site for an experiment for the Atoms for Peace mission called Project Chariot. Specifically the idea, led by Edward Teller, was to create a harbor using nuclear bombs.
posted by Vaska (8 comments total)

... after extensive scientific studies, the AEC announced that it "would defer further consideration of the proposed Chariot experiment," due in part to public criticism ...

I can't imagine why anyone would be concerned, this seems like such a sensible idea. What could possibly go wrong?
posted by odinsdream at 8:25 AM on February 1, 2005

"Hey y'all, Watch this" carried to the extreme
posted by ElvisJesus at 8:37 AM on February 1, 2005

Ah, Edward Teller, Douchebag for Fission. We need less like him.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:11 AM on February 1, 2005

The full plowshare film can be downloaded in multiple formats at archive.org. There are some very interesting parts about the original plans for the panama canal. One wonders if less people would have died from radiation, as died from yellow fever, if we'd be able to just blast thru the jungle instead...
posted by nomisxid at 9:12 AM on February 1, 2005

Reminds me of Soviet use of nukes to create underground storage caverns (also I believe considered by the US for natural gas storage). And now, for your entertainment:

Perils of Modern Living

Harold P. Furth

"Well up above the tropostrata
There is a region stark and stellar
Where, on a strek of anti-matter
Lived Dr. Edward Anti-Teller.

Remote from Fusion's origin,
He lived unguessed and unawares
With all his antikith and kin,
And kept macassars on his chairs.

On morning, idling by the sea,
He spied a tin of monstrous girth
That bore three letters: A.E.C.
Out stepped a visitor from Earth.

Then, shouting gladly o'er the sands
Met two who in their alien ways
Were like as gentils. Their right hands
Clasped, and the rest was gamma rays."

(Published in 1955 & outdated one year later, when it was determined that the transition from matter to antimatter should also entail a mirroring effect in space. Strictly speaking, Dr. Teller would have to hold out his right hand and Dr. Anti-matter his left)

Palidrome?: A man, a plan, a canal, Panama.
posted by Pressed Rat at 9:36 AM on February 1, 2005

A dog, a plan, a canal: Pagoda!
posted by zsazsa at 3:02 PM on February 1, 2005

Teller was one seriously deluded fucked up bastard. He is the only person I was glad passed away in the last 10 years.
posted by edgeways at 5:01 PM on February 1, 2005

I knew I should have finished The Firecracker Boys. I was about a third of the way through it last month before I decided I'd move on to something else.
posted by phrits at 6:34 PM on February 1, 2005