Nuclear Harbor

The earth's surface was not sculptured for man's convenience, but nuclear explosives may permit man to do his own large-scale sculpturing. Last week the Atomic Energy Commission announced that in two weeks a party of scientists from the University of California's Radiation Laboratory and the U.S. Geological Survey will leave San Francisco for the dismal northwest coast of Alaska. Their purpose: to figure whether a harbor can and should be blasted there with nuclear explosives.

A long stretch of coast north of Bering Strait has no serviceable natural harbor, and the country behind it is believed to be rich in minerals, including vast deposits of high-grade coking coal. There may be important fisheries too, but few fishermen like to work off the dangerous, shelterless coast. So the region, which is virtually uninhabited, may be a good place for the world's first attempt (if the Russians do not do it first) at large-scale nuclear blasting.

Before recommending the blast, the AECmen intend to study the rock under the coastline. Some kinds of rock absorb more neutrons than others and become more radioactive. The hardness of the rock is important too, because it controls to some extent the amount of nuclear energy that must be used to produce the desired effect.

The AEC will not say at this stage how the blasting job should be done, or how many charges of explosive will be necessary. An obvious way to make a well-sheltered harbor would be to use a powerful charge for excavating the turning basin and several smaller charges to dig the channel leading to it.

An AEC publication, The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, gives some idea of the energy required. A 100-kiloton charge exploded on the surface of dry soil will form a crater 80 ft. deep and 580 ft. in diameter. The crater of a one-megaton charge exploded on the surface will be about 140 ft. deep and 1,300 ft. in diameter. If a charge is exploded 40 ft. down instead of on the surface, the diameter of its crater is nearly doubled. All these figures are for soil, not for resistant rock, but it looks as if a single megaton charge and two or three 100-kiloton charges could blast a harbor big enough for almost any purpose. The residual radioactivity, the AECmen hope, will die down to tolerable levels in a month or so.

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