Episode Details

In 1957, the U.S. government launched Project Plowshare under the Atoms for Peace banner, betting that nuclear explosions could dig canals, carve highways, and unlock natural gas. Thirty-five devices and twenty-seven tests later, the program was quietly dead. This episode traces the optimism, the actual detonations — Sedan, Gnome, Gasbuggy, Rulison, Rio Blanco — and the human ledger of exposure that the program never escaped. Why did a program named after Isaiah's swords-into-plowshares prophecy fail? Not for one reason, but three: contamination, economics, and a better, boring alternative called hydraulic fracturing. Key sources: • DOE/OSTI, Plowshare Program Executive Summary (PDF) — https://www.osti.gov/opennet/reports/plowshar.pdf • LLNL, The Plowshare Program — https://st.llnl.gov/news/look-back/plowshare-program • LLNL, The Sedan Event (Project Plowshare) — https://st.llnl.gov/news/look-back/sedan-event-project-plowshare Episode #055067 — open it directly at myweirdprompts.com/055067