The U.S. Project Plowshares started in 1961 and ended in 1977. The purpose of the program was the application of nuclear warheads to peaceful civilian uses such as digging canals, creating underground chambers and nuclear research. The Soviet Union had a similar program called Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy. Ultimately, these projects were stopped because each of the proposed uses that would be carried out on the surface would result in nuclear fallout. Even the underground applications such as fracking would still result in radioactive materials in oil and gas. Now the president of the U.S. has been reported to have asked why nuclear warheads are not used to stop hurricanes.
      In 2012, the website Live Science published an article that discussed the idea of using a nuclear explosion to quench a hurricane. Rachael Kaufman is the author of the article. She wrote, “The theory goes that the energy released by a nuclear bomb detonated just above and ahead of the eye of a storm would heat the cooler air there, disrupting the storm’s convection current. Unfortunately, this idea, which has been around in some form since the 1960s, wouldn’t work.” The problem with the idea has to do with the energies involved.
      Kaufman cited the research of Chris Landsea who was a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research meteorologist. Landsea wrote that a hurricane could be understood as a super-efficient country-sized engine. This engine draws heat out of the ocean and releases it into the atmosphere. As a hurricane travels over warm water, its low-pressure system causes water to evaporate. Then, as the water condenses back out of the atmosphere, the heat the water contains is transferred to the atmosphere. Approximately one percent of the heat that is released by the water creates wind. The rest of the heat from the water becomes ambient temperature of the air.
     A hurricane can release as much as fifty terawatts of heat energy at any moment. This is about fifty times greater than the capacity of the U.S. power grid. It is equivalent to the detonation of a ten-megaton nuclear bomb every twenty minutes. Kaufman said that using a nuclear warhead to try to stop a hurricane would be “about as effective as trying to stop a speeding Buick with a feather.” Hurricanes start as tropical depressions. It might be possible to influence the development of a tropical depression with a big nuclear warhead but there are many tropical depressions and it is difficult to know which few might become hurricanes.
     Kaufman wrote, “Finally, whether the bomb would have a minor positive effect, a negative effect, or none at all on the storm’s convection cycle, one thing is for sure: It would create a radioactive hurricane, which would be even worse than a normal one. The fallout would ride Trade Winds to land — arguably a worse outcome than a landfalling hurricane.”
     The only practical way to avoid the destruction caused by a hurricane would be to stay out of the areas where hurricanes often make landfall.

Ambient office  = 114 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 102 nanosieverts per hour

Vine ripened tomato from Central Market = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 109 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 98 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 113 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 1112 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 110 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 104 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 85 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office  = 123 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 112 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 113 nanosieverts per hour

Eggplant from Central Market = 147 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 110 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Dover sole – Caught in USA = 119 nanosieverts per hour

Part 3 of 3 Parts (Please read Parts 1 and 2 first)
    Jeff Edison is a former health official from Colorado who was involved in the cleanup. He said, “So there’s a huge downside to converting it into a wildlife refuge, because it allows residual contamination to remain in place. Theoretically, if the Earth still exists in the year 3000, they’ll still be monitoring groundwater at the arsenal,”
     Part of the Jefferson Proving Grounds (JPG) in southeastern Indiana became the Big Oaks National Wildlife Refuge. Millions of rounds of artillery were test fired at the JPG. Some of those artillery rounds were made of depleted uranium. Depleted uranium is a byproduct of the production of nuclear fuel. It is used for armor piercing shells because it is so dense. It does not produce enough radiation to be dangerous outside of a human body. However, the dust that results from exploding a depleted uranium shell is dangerous if inhaled or swallowed. There are depleted uranium fragments scattered around the JPG in areas that contain one and a half million unexploded artillery shells. This means that cleanup is not only expensive, but it is also dangerous.
    The Army told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the estimated cost of completely cleaning up the JPG could be over three billion dollars. The latest plan from the Army is to wait for twenty years in the hope that improved and less expensive technologies will be developed or that the unexploded shells will degrade to the point where they are no longer dangerous.
    Tim Maloney is a senior policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council and he is concerned. He said “I think there’s a case to be made that just leaving it in place really maintains an unacceptable risk of contamination spreading from the site. The Army needs to find a way to clean up the depleted uranium safely.” Although some parts of the JPG are safe, visitors have to watch a safety video and sign a waiver where they promise not to sue if they are injured by an exploding artillery shell.
     The Rocky Flats Plant (RFP) was a facility where parts for nuclear weapons were manufactured. It is located about fifteen miles northwest of Denver, Colorado.  It has been converted to the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge (RFNWR) which is open to hikers and cyclists. However, some critics question whether it is safe. Seven billion dollars were spent to cleanup two square miles where the plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads were manufactured. That part of the old RFP is surrounded by a fence and is closed to the public. The RFNWR was created from the buffer zone that surrounded the area where the triggers were actually made.
    While the federal government claims that the RFNWR is safe for human use, critics say that testing at the site was not thorough enough. Another group requested that the courts release documents from an investigation that was conducted over twenty-seven years ago at the weapons RFP. They hope that the documents will prove whether or not the government successfully tracked down and cleaned up all the contamination that was present. Both cases are still pending in federal court.
     The creation of wildlife refuges is a worthwhile pursuit, but perhaps more care can be given to ensuring that those refuges are absolutely safe for animals and humans.

Ambient office  = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Beefsteak tomato from Central Market = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 81 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 73 nanosieverts per hour