Environments at U.S. and U.S.S.R. nuclear explosion sites petroleum-stimulation projects
Links
- Document: Report (pdf)
- Download citation as: RIS | Dublin Core
Abstract
The United States Plowshare program for the peaceful application of nuclear explosives was formally established by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1957. A number of engineering uses for such explosions were proposed and discussed in the late fifties, mostly by personnel of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory under contract to AEC, and several projects were studied in detail during the nuclear weapons test moratorium extending from the fall of 1958 to the fall of 1961. The first Plowshare experiment, Project Gnome, was detonated on December 10, 1961. Since that time phenomenological data have been obtained in many media, including alluvium, tuff, shale, dolomite, salt, basalt, and granite, with explosions at depths ranging from near the surface to about 2,500 meters. After negotiation between El Paso Natural Gas Company and AEC, the first joint industry-government Plowshare experiment, Project Gas-buggy, was detonated on December 10, 1967. The second such experiment,Project Rulison, conducted on September 10, 1969, under the sponsorshipof Austral Oil Company, Inc., the AEC, and the Department of Interior,is currently being evaluated. These two experiments emphasized theU. S. interest in the potential application of underground nuclear explosions to the petroleum industry, especially to gas stimulation in sizable regions of large-scale, low productivity, generally undeveloped resources. (Petroleum as used in this report refers to both gas and oil resources.)
Suggested Citation
Terman, M.J., 1970, Environments at U.S. and U.S.S.R. nuclear explosion sites petroleum-stimulation projects: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 71-279, 62 leaves :ill. ;27 cm., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr71279.
ISSN: 2331-1258 (online)
| Publication type | Report |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | USGS Numbered Series |
| Title | Environments at U.S. and U.S.S.R. nuclear explosion sites petroleum-stimulation projects |
| Series title | Open-File Report |
| Series number | 71-279 |
| DOI | 10.3133/ofr71279 |
| Year Published | 1970 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | U.S. Geological Survey |
| Description | iv, 62 p. |