6. Building excavations for seaports.

7. Construction of pits for storage of tailings of mine-concentration plants.

Underground Explosions

1. Intensification of the exploitation of oil and gas deposits.

2. Building of underground storage facilities for natural gas, gas condensate and petroleum products.

3. Building of underground areas for the burial of biologically harmful industrial waste.

4. Underground mining of ore deposits.

5. Control of pressure in mines and elsewhere, including the control of gas and oil gushers.

A series of projects for the application of underground nuclear explosions during the preparation of and actual working of large deposits of mineral resources have been worked out, as well as for construction work.

The results of theoretical and experimental investigations on defining the basic parameters of the mechanical effect of explosions in massifs and the basis for the effectiveness for the given purpose of the directionality of explosive influence have been widely used in development of projects.

Theoretical computations and experience gained in using conventional explosives in the USSR and abroad were used in these projects, involving the building of water reservoirs, dams, canals, quarries, underground mines, etc. The following tests were made in order to solve engineering and scientificresearch problems:

1. Modeling explosions under laboratory conditions.

2. Experimental explosions of chemical explosives in the field.

3. Experimental and industrial-testing explosions of nuclear charges at proving grounds and directly at industrial sites.

As the scale of the explosions increased, the content and volume of investigations increased substantially.

The following problems were included in the purposes of investigations and performance of the experimental explosions:

Investigation of qualitative and quantitative peculiarities of nuclear explosion effects (mechanical, seismic, radiation, and thermal).

Working out optimal technological schemes for industrial nuclear explo

sions.

Obtaining data on the stability of engineering structures created by the explosion.

Study of the effect of seismic waves from explosion of conventional and nuclear charges upon the stability of surface and underground structures, etc. The positive results of theoretical calculations and of experimental and industrial tests of explosions provide a foundation for the realization of a series of large-scale projects of industrial application of underground explosions.

The report briefly describes the results of the explosions performed and the scientific investigations achieved, as well as the basic conditions of certain projects.

A. Explosions of External Effect

Chapter I BUILDING OF RESERVOIRS

The waterless desert areas in the Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union have been for centuries in acute need of water. At the present level of development of cattle breeding, irrigation in agriculture, settling and working of new land, the lack of water in these regions has become a problem for the national economy.

The fact that the main volume of surface discharge runs off into these rivers in the spring is a natural characteristic feature in these areas. Thus, the possibility of a direct use of the discharge is limited to the spring period. Considering this fact, the problem of an economic water supply for developing areas may be solved by building a wide network of artificial reservoirs and water storage facilities. This action would allow the regulation of the spring discharge and permit using it during the entire growing season.

The application of nuclear explosions for these purposes, based on the experience of experimental cratering explosions performed in our country and in the U.S., will considerably accelerate the solution of this national economic problem.

The project of building an experimental-industrial water storage facility in one of the regions of the USSR is an example of the application of nuclear explosions (Figs. 1 and 2).

The following elements are contained in the hydro-engineering works of the water storage project: two non-overflow rock-fill dams, an emergency spillway, a protective embankment, an earth dam of conventional cross-section with a riverbed drain in its body, a raceway, and the main irrigation canals.

The full capacity of the water storage facility is planned to be 30 million m3; the effective capacity is to be 27 million m3. The water supply guaranteed for multiannual (75 percent guaranteed) regulation from the reservoir is to be 10.8 million m3/yr, and in low-water periods-20 million m3/yr.

The order for accomplishing the work foresees as the first step the construction of the rock-fill non-overflow dams using nuclear explosions of two cratering charges of 150 kilotons each, and later on, the building of the other installations.

The explosions are performed in porphyrites, at a 185 m depth. The placement depth of the charges was established, considering the desire to obtain a maximum height of the pile and to exclude completely any additional work connected with the height of the dams as planned.

The computed parameters of each of the non-overflow dams are as follows: crater diameter*

crater depth

maximum height of pile

radius of rock destruction

volume of rock ejected from crater

180 m

105 m

31.5 m

650 m

5.7 mil. m3

The area where the explosion is to take place is very sparsely populated; therefore, the work on seismic and radiation safety is not complicated.

In computing the dimensions of the danger zone for safety from radiation, the quantity of radioactive products discharged during explosions was calculated according to the levels presented in the Johnson and Higgins report to the Third

International Conference in Geneva in 1964: "The Use of Nuclear Explosion Facilities According to Project Plowshare" (Report R/291).

The conduct of explosions is adjusted to meteorological conditions, in order to permit the accomplishment of the organizational-technical measures of the special safety technique.

The construction of the entire complex of the hydro-engineering facility built by conventional methods starts two months after the explosions and ends within the following five months; during this period, the radiation effect upon the personnel performing the work will not exceed the level allowed (5 r/yr).

The concentration of strontium-90 in the storage water is, according to calculations, much lower than the safety margin allowed.

The use of nuclear explosions in the building of the two rock-fill dams decreases the capital investment 1.5 times as compared to the conventional building method.

Chapter II BUILDING OF CANALS

Project of Diverting the Northern Rivers Into the Volga River (Figs. 3 and 4)

Due to a climatic anomaly, increased water use, and the creation of water reservoirs on the Volga, Kama and other rivers of the Caspian Sea Basin, the level of the sea has been lowered 2.5 m in the past 35 years. This circumstance has inflicted considerable damage on the fish industry, sea transportation and certain other branches of the national economy of the coastal area.

Computations have indicated that the planned increased diversion of water will provoke, even under favorable climatic conditions, a further lowering of the Caspian Sea level by 0.6 m in 1980 and by 1.7 m by 2000.

It is possible to offset the increased need for water in the central and southern regions of the European part of the country and to stabilize the Caspian Sea level by diverting the discharge of the northern rivers (which carry an abundant supply of water) in particular, by diverting the discharge of the Pechora River.

In order to accomplish the project of diverting the runoff of the Pechora River into the Volga River it will be necessary to build, in addition to the construction of headworks, a deep canal across the Pechoro-Kolva watershed, 112.5 km in total length.

The project calculations state that (Fig. 3):

The section of the canal, 65 km in length with high points and running through rocky terrain, should be built by means of group nuclear cratering explosions.

On the other sections, the loose rock and points on the surface not exceeding 130 to 140 m will permit the building of a canal by conventional methods using hydraulic machinery.

The geological cross-section of the canal section being built by means of nuclear explosions is composed of sandstone, siltstone and rock salt.

The construction site is sparsely populated with a population density of less than 1 person per km2.

The canal, with an effective cross-section of 5,000 m2, is planned for construction by using group explosions of concentrated, linearly-placed cratering charges (Fig. 4).

Approximately 250 charges will be needed for the building of the entire canal route. In order to place the charges at computed depths of 150-285 m, it will be necessary to drill 65,000 meters of boreholes.

42-051 - 70 pt. 2 = 33