Peaceful Uses for Nuclear Explosions

The examples below are all from serious to semiserious sources - that is, sources where at least some thought was put into them beyond "what would make a cool picture".

Propulsion Nucléaire Aéronautique?

So here's a mystery.   I was skimming an old AEC list of reactor proposals for article ideas, and I came across an entry for a reactor called "BRENDA", that was going to be built by the Societe Nationale D'Etudes et de Construction de Moteurs D'Aviation (SNECMA) and the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA) in Cadarache, France.   The reactor was gas-cooled, used ceramic-clad enriched uranium oxide fuel, and would be moderated by beryllium oxide.   1 MWth power, 1300 F temperature.   Purpose: aircraft propulsion prototype.

Now that's certainly something.

The Nuclear-Powered Swimsuit

And I'm not talking about the bikini.

In the mid to late 60s, the AEC studied the use of Pu-238 radioisotope heaters to provide heat for a Navy wetsuit:

Figure 1: Pu-238-heated Wetsuit

(Okay, yes, technically it's a wetsuit, not a swimsuit.   I thought swimsuit made a better title.)

Burning Metal, Part 2

Those Magnificent Men and their Atomic Machines

Burning Metal: The Los Alamos Molten Plutonium Reactor Experiment and the History of the Fast Breeder

Part II

Back to Part I

With special thanks to Prof. R. M. Kiehn

Note on Notation

Money is going to be talked about a lot, but the value of the dollar has been different from year to year. In each case, unless otherwise specified, values will be given in the amount for the year in question, followed in parentheses by the equivalent value in 2011 dollars.

Change of Plans

But, as Los Alamos was preparing the third LAMPRE fuel loading, the nuclear energy landscape was changing.

In 1958 the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) had set a target of making nuclear electricity cost-effective in regions with high fuel costs. In 1962, they decided they had just about reached that goal. Four private nuclear reactors and two joint public-private projects were producing power by 1962, and another ten were under construction, most of them Light Water Reactors (LWRs). In a landmark report to the president on civilian nuclear power in 1962, the AEC recommended that light water technology be handed over to the private sector. There were obviously further improvements to be made, but they would be evolutionary and incremental, and thus the domain of private enterprise rather than the AEC labs. Properly encouraged by the government, the light water reactor would be cost-competitive with coal and gas by the 1970s except in very low fuel cost areas. The AEC would focus instead on advanced reactor concepts, particularly breeders.