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mining process with mass caving; and to considerably improve the efficiency of mine work.

It should be sufficient to note that with a 2-3 charge explosion of 1-1.5 kilotons each it is possible to break, at one stroke, 1.5 to 2.0 million tons of ore and that this achievement would require only a 0.3 to 0.4 km long shaft. According to tentative calculations, the cost of mining of 1 ton of ore may be reduced 1.5 to 2 times as a result of using large-scale explosions. This would permit the exploitation of certain deposits or individual sections which at present are not considered profitable.

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FOREWORD

This report is one of three recently released by the Soviet Union to the U. S. Mission and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. The reports discuss the use of nuclear explosions for industrial and construction projects in the Soviet Union, the results of two experimental detonations that were recently conducted in the USSR, and general theory developed as a result of such experiments.

The two other reports are: Review of Possible Peaceful Applications of Nuclear Explosions in the National Economy of the Soviet Union and Radioactive Contamination of the Environment by Underground Nuclear Explosions, and Methods of Forecasting It.

These reports were translated by Mr. Grimes of AZTEC, Inc. and were edited for technical accuracy and terminology by M. Nordyke of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Livermore, California.

MECHANICAL EFFECT OF UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS

Moscow USSR-1969

Report of the Institute of Terrestrial Physics

of the USSR Academy of Sciences

INTRODUCTION

1. Chemical explosives are widely used in various fields of industry and construction. Explosions aid in excavation while building hydraulic-engineering installations, in uncovering ore deposits, in crushing hard rock, in generating elastic waves during seismic investigations, etc.

A sufficiently large body of experience has been accumulated in the use of such explosions in relation to the areas listed to permit us to use the explosive energy with considerable efficiency. The problems of safety during explosions have been well established.

The theory of explosion in a solid medium has been studied to a much lesser degree and the part played by the theory was actually limited to the analysis of problems of similitude and the formulation of principles for the presentation of · empirical formulae.

2. The mechanical effects of nuclear explosions do not differ qualitatively from those of chemical explosions; therefore, the possibility of using nuclear explosives in the same fields where chemical explosives are being used is beyond any doubts.

The experimental data, although still scarce, indicate that, for all practical purposes, nuclear cratering explosions do not differ from chemical explosions. 3. Nuclear charges present quite a few advantages, including small dimensions and practically unlimited power, thus opening up new possibilities for using the explosion and laying the groundwork for a totally new technological process in a number of industrial and constructior. fields. We should bear in mind in this connection the planned construction of hydraulic installations of large dimensions, the intensification of oil and gas recovery, and the building of underground storage facilities, all of which may be achieved only with the aid of nuclear explosions.

4. The particular properties of a nuclear explosion generate certain difficulties in determining the mechanical effect; these difficulties may be described in general as follows:

The change in the scale of the phenomenon when chemical explosive charges are replaced by nuclear charges is so considerable that the empirical rules previously established may prove to be incorrect. (For instance, the dependence of the crater dimensions upon the explosive energy.) The high initial energy concent. ation in the explosion of a nuclear charge means that the thermodynamic

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