The introduction is as if he's introducing a new household appliance to facilitate daily life.

The good old days

Back in the days when nuclear weapons were sexy

Is it just the recording methods, or did the same speaker do 99% of all old film documentaries?

A peaceful nuclear explosion.

"I'm from the Government and I'm here to help"

Nukes for clean water containing larger more deeper red salmon

Two nuclear explosions on Japan and our enemy is now our close friend - I prefer to call them 'friend makers'

Nuclear explosions for “mining purposes”. This is a masterpiece.

this feels straight out of dr strangelove, i can't believe anyone took more than one look at this and said yes this is a good idea

I'd rather work in the salt mines than the nuclear mines

Manifest destiny! Onward and upward! From Here To Eternity!....Don't worry! Every precaution has been taken! We know what we're doing this time and you can trust us, this time...Safety measures are in place! We've got the very best pamphlets. We've read all the brochures. There were hardly any flipper babies....What could go wrong?

This is a prime example of an idea that looks good on paper. In practice-not so much. We're still up to our necks paying civil law suits to "compensate" for ignorance. You'd think the eggheads that were able to invent this could have figured out how to better deal with the waste. I'm sure that wasn't a priority at the time. How many pristine Pacific Islands are STILL uninhabitable due to residual radiation? Let's not even talk about the earthquakes triggered by these "nukes for industry". Next to these "friendly explosions" fracking doesn't seem so bad.

The Russians had a similar program. They even used a nuke to put out a oil/gas fire.

I never thought that nuclear power could be related to a Black & Decker power drill..... power tool... hahahaha...

Gimme some of that radioactive water..

Nothing quit like copper mined using a nuke.

ngl this seems awesome

As long as the Soviets were testing nukes so were we and that’s just how shit went back then. Actually, not much different from now..

I think I figured out what stymied plowshare and other nuclear projects. “What to do with the waste”?

Ah there's no problem too big or too small that cannot be cured by a nuclear explosion. 😃😃

This really brings home the point that we're not many generations removed from the common chimp, for what a short while we've understood radiation. 100 years ago, radium in the jockstrap was considered 'healthful', and if it glowed in the dark, it was good!

absolute insanity by incredibly sane individuals

Talk about the best bang for your buck!

I glad that didn’t happen, potentially changing the ocean currents England could be ice chunk or great new-beach front. Oceans or at currently different elevations it’s gonna want to lovel out.

Why couldn't they set off these devices closer to Washington DC?

This was a good idea, actually. The fallout information was publicly available, and some projects had levels of radioactivity within acceptable limits. It was cancelled mostly for political reasons.

I guess it looked good on paper

20:50 Is that the Sedan device?

In this video they are literally showing how they are lotioning lizards up before the nuclear blast, hahahahahhahahaha.

911 anybody

Check out the Gasbuggy shots. Not one of those brainiacs could foresee the gas would be too radioactive for use......

Oh God the lack of PPE. This wouldn't even pass OSHA standards for a warehouse

5:58 mad scientists at work on a unassuming test subject.

Muad'Dib approves.

Good intro. 1:27

Lol. Ah, the short sighted dreams they once had, oh well, it's only 20/20 in hindsight...

Howard Rock

The Sedan crater is radioactive to this day. From Wiki - "The 1,280 by 320 ft (390 by 100 m) crater was created on July 6, 1962 by a 104-kiloton-of-TNT (440 TJ) thermonuclear explosion.[5][3] The device was buried 635 feet (194 m)[3] below the desert floor in Area 10 of Yucca Flat and was the largest cratering shot in the Plowshare Program. The explosion created fallout that affected more US residents than any other nuclear test, exposing more than 13 million people to radiation.[7] Within 7 months of the excavation, the bottom of the crater could be safely walked upon with no protective clothing and photographs were taken.[8]" Russian thistle, also known as tumbleweed, is the primary plant species growing in the crater along with some grasses. Analysis in 1993 observed that the original perennial shrubs once living there had shown no recovery.[9] The radiation level on the crater lip at 1 hour after burst was 500 R per hour (130 mC/(kg·h)),[7] but it dropped to 500 mR per hour after 27 days.[7] Within 7 months (~210 days) of the excavation, the bottom of the crater could be safely walked upon with no protective clothing,[8] with radiation levels at 35 mR per hour after 167 days.[7] Fallout US counties that measured the highest levels of radioactive fallout from both Sedan and "Small Boy" of Operation Sunbeam, detonated eight days later. Units are millisieverts. The ten highest radiation exposures to residents from US continental nuclear testing The explosion caused two plumes of radioactive cloud, rising to 3.0 km and 4.9 km (10,000 ft and 16,000 ft). The plumes headed northeast and then east in roughly parallel paths towards the Atlantic Ocean.[citation needed] Nuclear fallout was dropped through several counties.[3] Detected radioactivity was especially high in eight counties in Iowa and one county each in Nebraska, South Dakota and Illinois. The most heavily affected counties were Howard, Mitchell and Worth counties in Iowa as well as Washabaugh County in South Dakota, an area that has since been incorporated into Jackson County and is within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. These four counties measured maximum levels higher than 6,000 microcuries per square meter (220 MBq/m2).[9] Of all the nuclear tests conducted in the United States, Sedan ranked highest in overall activity of radionuclides in fallout. The test released 880,000 curies (33 PBq) of radioactive iodine-131, an agent of thyroid disease, into the atmosphere.[10)

And here we are wasting time, fracking like chumps.

„Sir, we excavated that new canal with nukes now. Bad news is we have to wait 300 years until we can use it due to radiation…“

5:53 So those Women being treated _Weren't_ benefitting in Health and Welfare?? Jeez how times have changed for the better (sometimes!)

@4:10

Thankfully we weren't shortsighted enough to end up thinking this was a good idea.

A remarkably naive perspective and clear evidence our government is not above "propaganda". A term often though the realm of ill motivation. Yet, very much then and in use now. A tool our government and industry actively employ today. Point being... do your home/own work to vet information sources. You may not come up with the correct answer, but chances are you'll learn why. This as opposed to be blindly led to someone else's perspective of reality.

Plowshare and Plumbob. What on Earth we're they thinking?!?

Ionizing radiation contamination, who would’ve thought. Seems like it was just as bad of an idea back then as it is now. We had enough test data at that point to know all that radioactive dust generated would not be a great idea. I think the USG was testing for something other than what they claim. The civilian terraforming excuse wasn’t worth the risk. They had other test objectives in mind besides what they claim. They would rather you think they were stupid and irresponsible than for you to know the true objectives of the test. Hence, the nuclear excavation side story.

Nuclear civil engineering constructions?, … it never happened.

Project plowshare should get started up again and start ... brining advanced cutting/moving techniques to Moscow...

Plowpaganda

D.U.M.B.s anyone? For the betterment of trafficking society.

"Peaceful nuclear explosives" lol..boy we were dumb then

"A peaceful nuclear explosion" That sounds about as stupid as a quiet little knife fight.

Comments on resources like this illustrate why nuclear power struggles against its myths now more than ever. Anyone who criticizes the concept on the grounds of validity have failed to realize the USSR conducted numerous operations using techniques similar to Plowshare with immense success and zero environmental damage. Further, nuclear waste is a purely political issue; all nuclear nations make a conscious decision to allow their nuclear industries to produce waste. "Nuclear waste" is actually excess nuclear material which can be easily reused, but we choose to categorize this material as waste to reduce the cost or political implication of reprocessing. The peaceful nuclear devices proposed in plowshare were to be thermonuclear making fallout a non-issue, and waste is an artificial issue. It is clear that public opinion of our agencies and technology have hampered human development of nuclear technology.

So glad we didn't!

We know today that the commentary regarding the fallout is totally false, really is no other way to put it.

And no.

Nuclear Vault FHD ?? 4K ??

FHD ?? 4K ??

0:38 - "Left on its own, Nature is too pla-cid" (h/t to MST3K).

They dug the suez and panama canals without nukes

I knew a guy that fell into the Sedan Crater and could not get out because of the soft sand. The next monthly tour of tourist found him laying dead on the Russian Thistle, true story

What would it do if you put it under the elevator shafts of the WTC 1 & 2 & 7 ? They look a lot alike. The explosion going up through the building and then water falling out and then the plumes of smoke on the ground. Yulp I thought those guys were just smoking pot and drinking beer and blowing things up out there in the desert. Humm

Peaceful nuclear explosions Oxymoron