Ed Regis's new book is Monsters: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Birth of Pathological Technology.From his Q & A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: One technology you describe in the book is Project Plowshare. What impact did it have, and why do you see it as pathological?--Marshal Zeringue
Project Plowshare was a U.S. government scheme that ran between the years 1957 and 1974 [involving detonation of hydrogen bombs for excavation projects]. This was called “planetary geoengineering.”
The plan was harebrained beyond belief, but the scientists who worked on it, including Edward Teller and a Nobel prizewinning physicist, among others, were so enthralled by the idea of using the awesome power of H-bombs for peaceful purposes that they systematically downplayed, minimized, and underestimated the minor detail of radiation damage...
The scientists detonated several bombs experimentally...[read on]