Proving Grounds: Project Plowshare and the Unrealized Dream of Nuclear Earthmoving

Abstract

Project Plowshare was a program carried out by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (aec) from the late 1950s until the early 1970s. Its purpose was to investigate the use of nuclear explosives for peaceful purposes, such as building canals, creating harbors, cutting paths for roads and railways, and freeing natural gas reserves trapped underground. Scott Kirsch provides a comprehensive review of Plowshare's origins, development, and demise. He also carefully traces the growing opposition to the aec's plans. He describes his book as “a study of hubris and failure” (p. 4) and concludes by hailing the “triumph of dissent” (p. 207). Kirsch convincingly argues that promoters of Project Plowshare often demonstrated misplaced enthusiasm, unfounded optimism, and unseemly arrogance in pursuing their objectives. He suggests, less persuasively, that the aec was largely indifferent to radiation hazards. His villains are the scientists from the aec and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who actively pushed the program in the face of technological uncertainties and political opposition, even to the point of “duplicitous behavior” (p. 97). By contrast, Kirsch portrays critics of Plowshare as apolitical searchers for scientific truth.