I have written before about the use of nuclear bombs for civilian purposes. The U.S. and the Soviet Union explored various possibilities decades ago but ideas such as using nuclear explosive to dig canals or to frack for natural gas were abandoned. The Soviet Union was always more ambitious than the U.S. with respect to possible civilian uses for nuclear explosives. Despite the lack of widespread application of nuclear explosives for such civilian projects, there was a time when a nuclear bomb did turn out to be useful to solve a non-military problem in the Soviet Union.
In 1963, there was a blowout in a well that resulted in a huge fire at the Urta-Bulak natural gas field in Uzbekstan. More than twelve million cubic meters of natural gas were lost each day. A geyser of flaming natural gas resisted all attempts to douse it with water or any of the many other solutions that were attempted. Finally, in 1966, it was decided that a nuclear bomb might be able to put the fire out.
A borehole was drilled about one hundred and twenty feet away from the burning well to a depth of twenty thousand feet. A thirty kiloton nuclear bomb was lowered into one of the holes until it rested about one hundred and fifteen feet from the well shaft. Specially designed tools were use to lower the cylindrical bomb down the hole. Then the hole was filled to the top with concrete and the concrete was given time to set.
After an inspection and signoff from a special government commission consisting of physicists, geologists, natural gas specialists and designers, in September of 1966, the bomb was detonated and the explosion crushed the pipe feeding the fire and glassified the rock around the well shaft. The fire went out within twenty three seconds of the bomb blast. There was no evidence of radioactivity detected above ground after the fire was extinguished.
An observer of the event said, “On that cold autumn day in 1966, an underground tremor of unprecedented force shook the with a sparse grass cover on white sand. A dusty haze rose over the desert. The orange‐colored torch of the blazing well diminished, first slowly, then more rapidly, until it flickered and finally died out. For the first time in 1,064 days, quiet descended on the area. The jet-like roar of the gas well had been silenced.”
The September 1966 test was part of a program called Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy (NENE). The program was created to test non-military peaceful uses of nuclear explosives. Between the mid 1960 and 1988, there were one hundred and fifteen tests under the NENE program in the Soviet Union. Most of these tests were focused on geological exploration such as the search for natural gas deposits. Tests were also conducted on the creation of huge underground cavities that could be used for toxic waste storage. There were earth-moving tests aimed at creating dams and canals. With the end of the Soviet Union in 1991, this project and many others were cancelled.
