Project Ketch

Last updated

Project Ketch was a 1964 United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) proposal to use nuclear explosives to excavate a natural gas storage reservoir in Pennsylvania. The project was proposed as a component of Project Plowshare, which sought ways to use nuclear devices in public works and industrial development projects. The project was the only Plowshare project proposed for the northeastern United States.

Contents

A detailed study for the project was published in 1967, but the project stalled after local opposition developed. Project Gasbuggy, a similar test in New Mexico that was carried out in 1968, showed that better understanding of the effects of rock fracturing was needed before Project Ketch could proceed. The project was never pursued any further.

Proposal

In the early 1960s, the AEC worked to publicize the Project Plowshare program for peaceful use of atomic devices. The 1960s saw government-mandated low prices for natural gas, providing little incentive for exploration of new gas sources, and contributed to gas shortages. [1] A consistent theme of Plowshare was the creation and use of underground cavities for natural gas storage. Storage reservoirs are used to balance divergences between supply and demand, as contingency against emergencies, and as a means of arbitrage. [2] Existing storage reservoirs tended to be concentrated in areas away from their markets, and a demand was seen for additional storage capacity, closer to markets in the northeastern United States in an area without sufficient natural reservoirs. [1]

Discussions between the AEC and the Columbia Gas Corporation began in 1964 to find a suitable site for a demonstration project in Pennsylvania. [3] The project's focus was an area to the south of Renovo in Sproul State Forest, close to areas that had seen gas exploration and near existing gas transmission pipelines, [1] which was seen as thinly populated and of marginal economic usefulness. The proposed Plowshare experiment was named "Project Ketch". [4] General area survey work by the AEC and Columbia took place in 1965–66. Discussions with the Pennsylvania state government began in 1966. Surveys referred to the local residents as "natives", and characterized their dwellings as "rickety". No effort was made to assess local views concerning the project, suggesting that "[f]rom very limited contact, the native populations would appear somewhat resistant to change or progress and may take some convincing." News of the project first came to public notice in a February 14, 1967, article in the Pittsburgh Press . [2]

An AEC study, published in July 1967, stated that as a result of the detonation, "There would be no air blast effects, of course, and radiation effects would be safely contained underground." It went on to assert that "Purging of the chimney, filtration and dehydration treatment at the wellhead can be employed to eliminate appreciable radioactivity from gas stored in the reservoir. Levels attainable should render the gas suitable for use in existing pipeline facilities, and provide a favorable basis for determinations regarding eventual public consumption." [5] The report projected that radioactivity would be reduced significantly in the six to nine months following the explosion, while krypton-85 and tritium "might require flushing from the chimney". The report stated that dilution during transmission and combustion would in general reduce radioactivity below permissible limits. [6]

An August 11, 1967, letter from Pennsylvania governor Raymond P. Shafer granted conditional approval to the project for site evaluation studies, reserving the right to refuse approval of later phases if the project was shown to not benefit the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. However, a lease was still required for the site before work could begin. [1]

Opposition and cancellation

Once the project became known, local residents began to ask about potential effects of the project. AEC and Columbia responses asserted that there would be no problems, emphasizing the remoteness of the "wilderness" area and its apparently marginal economic utility, implying that the region was effectively empty of population or utility. Initially the project was presented as a demonstration and did not describe any immediate economic value or benefit. After this rationale began to be questioned, the AEC and Columbia suggested that the demonstration project would lead to economic development of the region, with potentially thousands more blasts, these much closer to population centers once the concept had been tried in a remote area. Opposition coalesced in Renovo, 12 miles (19 km) from the site, [7] and in State College, 30 miles (48 km) away. Although the area had been clearcut for timber before the 1930s, it was portrayed by opposition as "unsoiled mountain land". [2]

Louis Roddis Jr., a nuclear engineer and member of the Pennsylvania Governor's Science Advisory Committee, wrote that "there is a distinct public relations problem since the northeastern United States is not as accustomed to either earthquake shocks or nuclear test shots as is the southwestern United States." [7]

On December 10, 1967, a similar test was carried out near Dulce, New Mexico. Project Gasbuggy sought to gather data on fracturing low-permeability strata to stimulate gas production. Gasbuggy succeeded in increasing permeability, to the point that groundwater filled an unexpected proportion of the fractures. The Gasbuggy results indicated that better understanding of local hydrology should be established for similar projects. The Pennsylvania project stalled, and no work was undertaken. As opposition became more focused, Columbia withdrew from the project in 1968. The required site lease was never negotiated. Funding for Plowshare ceased in 1975. [1]

Project

The site location was set in Sproul State Forest, Beech Creek Township, in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, close to Centre County. The location was in the southwestern end of the Hyner Anticline, in the Chemung Portage Group of strata. The project proposed the detonation of a 24-kiloton nuclear device in an 18-inch (46 cm) wide borehole, at a depth of about 3,300 feet (1,000 m) to create a cavity suitable for natural gas storage. [1] The location was near an existing gas storage area in the Leidy gas field. The result of the detonation was expected to be a rubble-filled "chimney," about 90 feet (27 m) wide and about 300 feet (91 m) tall, capped by impermeable formations. Fractures were expected to extend to a radius of around 650 feet (200 m). The natural gas storage capacity was expected to be about 465,000,000 cubic feet (13,200,000 kl), stored at 2,100 pounds per square inch (140 bar) pressure. [1] [8]

The proposed project phasing envisioned the following:

Construction costs for a typical operational facility were expected to be from $1.55 million (equivalent to $13,165,000in 2022) for a small reservoir using a 24-kiloton device to $2.08 million (equivalent to $18,255,000in 2022) for one created with a 100-kiloton device. [10] The assumed costs to obtain a nuclear device from the AEC were $390,000 for a 24-kiloton device, to $460,000 for a 100-kiloton device, in 1967 costs. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear explosive</span> Explosive device not necessarily for military use

A nuclear explosive is an explosive device that derives its energy from nuclear reactions. Almost all nuclear explosive devices that have been designed and produced are nuclear weapons intended for warfare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project Plowshare</span> U.S. program examining the peaceful applications of nuclear explosives (1961–77)

Project Plowshare was the overall United States program for the development of techniques to use nuclear explosives for peaceful construction purposes. The program was organized in June 1957 as part of the worldwide Atoms for Peace efforts. As part of the program, 35 nuclear warheads were detonated in 27 separate tests. A similar program was carried out in the Soviet Union under the name Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuclear weapons testing</span> Controlled detonation of nuclear weapons for scientific or political purposes

Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance, yield, and effects of nuclear weapons. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by different conditions, and how personnel, structures, and equipment are affected when subjected to nuclear explosions. However, nuclear testing has often been used as an indicator of scientific and military strength. Many tests have been overtly political in their intention; most nuclear weapons states publicly declared their nuclear status through a nuclear test.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project Chariot</span> Proposal to construct an artificial harbor at Cape Thompson, Alaska using nuclear devices

Project Chariot was a 1958 United States Atomic Energy Commission proposal to construct an artificial harbor at Cape Thompson on the North Slope of the U.S. state of Alaska by burying and detonating a string of nuclear devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boise River</span> River in Idaho, United States

The Boise River is a 102-mile-long (164 km) tributary of the Snake River in the Northwestern United States. It drains a rugged portion of the Sawtooth Range in southwestern Idaho northeast of Boise, as well as part of the western Snake River Plain. The watershed encompasses approximately 4,100 square miles (11,000 km2) of highly diverse habitats, including alpine canyons, forest, rangeland, agricultural lands, and urban areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amchitka</span> Island in the United States of America

Amchitka is a volcanic, tectonically unstable and uninhabited island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska. It is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The island, with a land area of roughly 116 square miles (300 km2), is about 42 miles (68 km) long and 1 to 4 miles wide. The area has a maritime climate, with many storms, and mostly overcast skies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project Rulison</span> Late 1960s U.S. nuclear test in Garfield County, Colorado

Project Rulison, named after the rural community of Rulison, Colorado, was an underground 40-kiloton nuclear test project in the United States on September 10, 1969, about 8 miles (13 km) SE of the town of Grand Valley, Colorado in Garfield County. The location of "Surface Ground Zero" is 39°24′19.0″N107°56′54.7″W. The depth of the test cavity was approximately 8,400 ft (2,600 m) below the ground surface. It was part of the Operation Mandrel weapons test series under the name Mandrel Rulison, as well as the Operation Plowshare project which explored peaceful engineering uses of nuclear explosions. The peaceful aim of Project Rulison was to determine if natural gas could be easily liberated from underground regions. This site remains under active monitoring by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management.

Peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs) are nuclear explosions conducted for non-military purposes. Proposed uses include excavation for the building of canals and harbours, electrical generation, the use of nuclear explosions to drive spacecraft, and as a form of wide-area fracking. PNEs were an area of some research from the late 1950s into the 1980s, primarily in the United States and Soviet Union.

Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy was a Soviet program to investigate peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs). It was analogous to the United States program Operation Plowshare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project Gnome (nuclear test)</span> 1961 nuclear test explosion in New Mexico, United States

Project Gnome was the first nuclear test of Project Plowshare and was the first continental nuclear weapon test since Trinity to be conducted outside of the Nevada Test Site, and the second test in the state of New Mexico after Trinity. It was tested in southeastern New Mexico on December 10, 1961, approximately 40 km southeast of Carlsbad, New Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salmon Site</span> Site of nuclear weapons test

The Salmon Site is a 1,470-acre (5.9 km2) tract of land in Lamar County, Mississippi, near Baxterville. The tract is located over a geological formation known as the Tatum Salt Dome and is the location of the only nuclear weapons test detonations known to have been performed in the eastern United States.

A ketch is a sailing craft with two masts.

Project Oilsand, also known as Project Oilsands, and originally known as Project Cauldron, was a 1958 proposal to exploit the Athabasca Oil Sands in Alberta via the underground detonation of up to 100 nuclear explosives; hypothetically, the heat and pressure created by an underground detonation would boil the bitumen deposits, reducing their viscosity to the point that standard oilfield techniques could be used.

H. V. Eastman Lake is an artificial lake in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Madera County, California. A small percentage of the northwest area of the reservoir is in Mariposa County. The lake was named in honor of Judge H. V. Eastman (1891–1972) who had served as Secretary Manager of the Chowchilla Water District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project Gasbuggy</span> 1967 nuclear test explosion in New Mexico, United States

Project Gasbuggy was an underground nuclear detonation carried out by the United States Atomic Energy Commission on December 10, 1967 in rural northern New Mexico. It was part of Operation Plowshare, a program designed to find peaceful uses for nuclear explosions.

Project Rio Blanco was an underground nuclear test that took place on May 17, 1973 in Rio Blanco County, Colorado, approximately 36 miles (58 km) northwest of Rifle.

Project Carryall was a 1963 United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) proposal to use nuclear explosives to excavate a path for Interstate 40 (I-40) and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF) through the Bristol Mountains of southern California. The project was proposed as a component of Project Plowshare, which sought ways to use nuclear devices in public works and industrial development projects.

Project Rufus was a United States nuclear weapons program aimed at investigation and selection of sites within the United States and its possessions that would be suitable for high-yield atmospheric nuclear testing programs. The project's primary purpose was to identify locations where a Minuteman missile silo could be tested under realistic conditions. The project operated under the umbrella of the Vela Uniform research program.

Project Travois was a 1966 U.S. Army Nuclear Cratering Group proposal to use nuclear explosives to develop demonstration projects using nuclear explosives for dam construction. The project was proposed as a component of Project Plowshare, which sought ways to use nuclear devices in public works and industrial development projects. Several sites were considered in California, New Mexico, Idaho, and Oregon. None were pursued beyond studies, and all nuclear quarrying projects were abandoned by the end of 1968.

Project Thunderbird was a 1967 United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) proposal to use nuclear explosives to prepare coalbeds to gasify coal in place underground in Wyoming. The project was proposed as a component of Project Plowshare, which sought ways to use nuclear devices in public works and industrial development projects. The project aimed to exploit deep coal deposits to gasify them in situ with controlled combustion in the rubble chimney resulting from a deep nuclear detonation. The project was to be located on the border of Johnson County and Campbell County|, about 20 miles (32 km) west of Gillette, Wyoming, in the Powder River Basin.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Randolph, Amy (Fall 2017). "The Half-Century Anniversary of Project Ketch— A Proposal to Create Natural-Gas Storage in North- Central Pennsylvania Through Nuclear Detonation" (PDF). Pennsylvania Geology. 47 (3): 3–12. Retrieved July 30, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Krygier, J.B. (July 1998). "Project Ketch: Project Plowshare in Pennsylvania" . Ecumene. 5 (3): 311–322. doi:10.1177/096746089800500305. JSTOR   44252111. S2CID   144304632 . Retrieved July 30, 2023.
  3. ↑ Beck, Colleen M.; Edwards, Susan R.; King, Maureen L. (September 1, 2011). "Project Ketch". The Off-Site Plowshare and Vela Uniform Programs: Assessing Potential Environmental Liabilities through an Examination of Proposed Nuclear Projects,High Explosive Experiments, and High Explosive Construction Activities (PDF) (Report). Vol. 2. pp. 4-170–4-192. doi:10.2172/1046575.
  4. ↑ "Nuclear Gas Plan Stirs Controversy". New York Times. February 25, 1968. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
  5. ↑ Project Ketch. Columbia Gas System, United States Atomic Energy Commission, Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, and United States Bureau of Mines. July 1967. p. i. OSTI   4321824.
  6. ↑ Columbia, AEC et al p. 15
  7. 1 2 Malawskey, Nick (February 8, 2018). "How about setting off a nuclear bomb to mine Pa.'s natural gas? It was considered". Patriot-News. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
  8. ↑ Columbia, AEC et al p. 22
  9. ↑ Columbia, AEC et al p. 30
  10. ↑ Columbia, AEC et al p. 17
  11. ↑ Columbia, AEC et al p. 35

Further reading


41°10′57″N77°53′25″W / 41.18250°N 77.89028°W / 41.18250; -77.89028

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.