This is a classic article from New Scientist’s archive, republished as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations
PROJECT Gasbuggy, the world’s first commercially sponsored nuclear explosion, is scheduled to take place on 14 November on a lonely plateau in northern New Mexico. Gasbuggy is the most advanced test yet in the US Atomic Energy Commission’s Plowshare programme, which aims to find peaceful uses for nuclear explosions. Its object is to determine how effectively nuclear explosions can release natural gas from normally impermeable rock. Geologists estimate that successful use of the technique could double the usable gas reserves of the United States.…
