WEBVTT - What was Operation Plowshare? 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:04.680 Welcome to you Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:13.080 Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.320 Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's Jerry 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.639 Rowland and uh, this is stuff you should know the podcast. 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.840 It's the bomb. It is not the bomb du bomb 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:30.000 even that's right. So it was, but it was okay, 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:33.800 it worked for this one. Have you heard? Go ahead? 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:36.280 I was gonna say, you know, it didn't work for 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:40.320 this one. Was this the intro long intro which was 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:43.920 a nice story but has nothing so I would like 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:46.200 to cover that at some point. Yeah, it's a true story. 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:50.000 Let's leave it a secret. Yeah, everybody. Sorry. So, um, 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:54.720 had you heard of Operation Plowshare before? So, guys, there's 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:59.480 this really awesome Slate article um about Operations Plowshare. It's 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:03.440 a it's actually, um an excerpt from a book. I 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:06.080 can't remember what the book is called, but um, it 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.600 was on Slate. It's worth checking out. But just look 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.920 up operation plosh here and Slate. This guy goes into 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:15.080 it's actually called What Could Go Wrong? It's by Ed 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:20.200 Regious bam um that it's a guy who wrote a 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.200 book on Operation plows Share. And they excerpted on slate. Oh, 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:24.640 I thought you were going to say. He was like, 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:26.880 you know some my important like Brian Gumble. You know, 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.440 I was bamming like my own like so quick I 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:31.400 got the answer that I was looking for. I was 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.200 able to stall without coming off as stalling while I 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:40.039 found the answer. I was just so um, I've heard 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:42.760 about this when when I read that article, but I 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:45.520 hadn't heard about it before. But Operation Plosh there is 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.919 basically this idea that we could use all of these 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:56.680 surplus huge atomic bombs that we're laying around for civil 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:00.640 engineering projects, basically that we had to move earth. Yeah, 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.560 that we had at our disposal developed in World War Two, 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:09.600 this incredible explosive capacity to yeah, like, why not use 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.480 it to move earth? We we could use a canal, 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:18.079 let's make one. Yeah, Why bring a hundred bulldozers in 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:22.680 for months and months and man hours when we can 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.480 just drop a bomb and have a big hole right exactly. Weirdly, 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.360 it makes sense. It totally makes sense. Here's the problem 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:36.480 with it, though, It's insane because to to use this 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:44.000 successfully you have to literally ignore radioactive fallout from nuclear blasts. 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:47.000 There's just no way around it. Yeah, but this was 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.600 a time where they were they were blasting bombs up 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:52.960 in the way of high in the sky. They were 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.600 blasting it well as you'll see underground. Well, these cats 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:58.639 knew what was going on. It was the public that 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.560 wasn't hip to it yet. Well, sure, you know, but 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:05.120 I mean there was a little regard I think, yes, 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.799 I mean they dropped him on people. Yeah, that's that's 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.800 a little regard. They had pretty little regards. That's Japan. Yeah, 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:14.800 so that that that's that's a really great point that 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.880 you bring up UM. After Japan, this idea of using 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:27.120 UM nuclear bombs for peaceful civil engineering projects. UM led 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:29.920 to the title of this operation. The name of this 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.440 operation operation Plowshare, based on that. I think it's an 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.360 old Testament thing about beating your swords into plowshares, so 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.440 that you're you're using things not for war, you're using 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:42.880 technology not for war and to harm other people, but 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:47.080 to further humanity through technology. Yeah. They lifted the name 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.920 straight from the Book of Isaiah in the Bible. So 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:54.480 umle and supposedly the legend goes that there's a physicist 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.840 named Isadore Isaac Robbie UM and he said, so you 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:00.400 want to beat your old atomic bombs in the plow shares. 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:06.920 Huh when they went Robbie, you did it again. Uh 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:08.680 So should we talk a little bit about what led 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:14.040 up to this idea? Um, it's something called the Uh. Well, 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.680 have you heard of the Suez Canal once or twice? 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:19.279 Have you heard of the sue s crisis? Uh No, 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:21.600 I hadn't, actually had you. I had heard of it, 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:23.440 but I didn't know much about any of this stuff. 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:27.880 Uh So the Suez Crisis is what preceded this idea. Uh. 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:34.240 And it goes a little something like this. N UM. 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:38.200 The American government in the British government were starting to 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:41.120 get UM. Well, for a couple of years, they had 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:45.400 been a little bit annoyed with Egypt. UM, specifically their president, 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:51.240 Colonel Gamal A del Nassar or NASA. And UM, I 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:55.000 think it's we'll go with NASA. And he had been 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.679 cozing up to the Soviet Union, UM, kind of getting 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.440 weapons funneled through checklistle and they were they were arming 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:06.640 his his Egyptian army, and it was, you know, we're 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:08.560 talking about the Cold War. So people were getting a 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.360 little annoyed by it. They were because Egypt had been 0:05:11.800 --> 0:05:15.800 formerly First World because it was not only allied with 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.880 the British, it was under British imperial rule until the 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:23.080 early fifties. And um a military coup basically threw off 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.640 the British shackles, but not immediately and not necessarily in 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:30.880 the most bloody manner. The British ended up hammering out 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:34.920 a timeline where they left um Egypt, right, yeah, but 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:36.960 the Brits were, I mean for a couple of years. 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.520 At this point in nineteen fifty six, Egypt was still 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:43.799 trying to get Britain to in their military presence around 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.320 the canal, right and then uh, and at the beginning 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.320 of July n six to the last British troops left 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:53.280 the Suez Canal. And on July six, Nasser said, Oh, 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:57.920 we're nationalizing the Suez Canal. See you later, everybody, it's ours. Yeah, 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:00.280 And that was a little bit in retaliation for or 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.240 um the U S and England and Britain pulling out 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:07.960 of our promise to help them finance their Aswan damn project. 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:10.760 So it's sort of like there's a lot of back 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.839 and forth sniping like oh, yeah, you're not gonna finance this, Yeah, well, 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.240 I'm gonna nationalize the canal now that you guys aren't 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:18.560 here anymore, and I'm friends with the Soviets now and 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.560 they're giving us weapons. So that was a big deal. 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:24.400 And not only was it a big deal because there's 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:27.200 a lot of geo political maneuvering going on, it was 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:31.840 a big deal to Britain because the British Empire was 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:36.080 very much in decline. UM. It had just been bombed 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:38.880 to holy heck, even though it had come out on 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:42.800 the successful side during World War Two. And because of 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.480 World War Two, America kind of came out as like 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.880 the new big kid on the block, that the kind 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:53.840 of tough bully in charge basically, and this was happening. 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:58.120 America was ascending at the same time, Great Britain was 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:02.360 declining and the British ego was a little um touchy 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.359 at the time. So it assaulted the British empires ego 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.400 for the one. But it also had a more practical problem, 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.840 and that was that damn was important. Yeah, the not 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.840 the damn, the canal. Yeah, the canal was. It obviously 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:18.400 controlled a lot of trade in the Middle East, uh, 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:22.720 specifically the oil supply UM, and it wasn't just Britain, 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.840 it was France as well. Uh. They actually ran the 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.240 Suez Canal Company. Even though Brits, the Brits were the 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:33.640 large the British government specifically was a big stakeholder in 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:35.920 that company until it was nationalized. It was run by 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:40.920 a French company. And they were also exposed. You know, 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.560 basically Britain and France were both kind of exposed, like, 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:47.880 you know, Egypt stood up to them and they were like, 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:49.760 wait a minute, They were like, Egypt shouldn't be standing 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:53.600 up to us. You know, we're Britain, Great Britain exactly. 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:57.160 So there was egg on the face of I guess 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:03.800 omelets or wait, crepes, crepes on the face of France, yes, 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:09.640 and eggs on the face of Britain, right because eight eggs. Yeah, 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:12.160 but what's like toast and pork and beans, which is weird. 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:16.920 So um, the British and the French have egg all 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.200 over their face and they decide that they're going to 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:25.600 do something about this. Now they don't technically invade Egypt themselves, 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.440 right they do is they go to Israel and they say, 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.280 you guys should probably invade Egypt, don't you think, Yeah, 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.040 like you guys have been battling Egypt already. Yeah, border, 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.679 what's one more invasion? Yeah, so they got Israel to 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.440 invade basically is a means of setting themselves up, the 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:48.720 French and the British of sending troops into act as peacekeepers. Man. Yeah, 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.600 it sounded like all three of them. I don't think 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:53.720 they like snowed Israel. I think they were all three 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:55.920 on in this plan. Yeah, that's the impression I have to. 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:00.600 So basically they said, you guys attack on October fifty six. 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.640 We're gonna call for a ceasefire, but we'll be in 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:07.040 there a couple of days later, don't you worry. Right, 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.520 And that's actually a very post imperial maneuver. Had it 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.120 been imperial, they would have just been like, uh, these 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.240 guys are brown and are rising up, so we're going 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:18.880 to invade. That's totally fine, isn't it. Rest of the 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:20.679 West and the rest of the West would have been 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.600 like sure, sure. But this was post imperial. They had 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.199 to do some maneuvering. They sent Israel in, they came 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.240 in as peacekeepers afterwards. And remember American now as the 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:30.960 big kid on the block. And there's such a thing 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.559 as a UN in America went to the u N 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.480 and went, what is that. They can't do that and said, 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:40.960 we condemned this. They basically acted without telling the US, 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.600 which really rubbed uh, the American government the wrong way. 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.719 So they and and by this time, well it was 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:54.560 initially successful. They took control of the Suez Canal, the Israeli, French, 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:58.280 British thing the force did. So it worked. But then 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:00.959 the Soviets got involved and they said, you know what, 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:04.360 kru Chef said, I'm gonna start reigning down nuclear bombs 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.560 on your head. Uh, because this is a big issue. 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:09.680 So the US said, I don't like any of this. 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:13.319 I'm gonna threaten sanctions against all the countries involved. All 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.320 of your time out go in the corner. That's right. 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.920 And when kreus Chef said I'm gonna rain bombs down 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:23.440 on you guys around the canal, it worked, Yes, it did. Um. 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.880 It actually ended the Tous crisis right like really quickly, 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.480 like at the end of October is when the invasion 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:34.360 took place, and in December is when France and Britain withdrew, 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.600 so it was like six weeks. Yeah, that's pretty quick. 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:41.880 And then in March Israel withdrew and it was all 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.640 over in. The Soviets were able to puff their chest out, 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:48.640 and you know, say, you know a nuclear threat worked, 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:52.280 and you guys know how well nuclear bombs work because 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.400 you did it. And the British went back and drown 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.319 their sorrows in a pine and bitter and the French 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.800 went back and uh, drink wine. Sure I was gonna 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:08.600 say great Goose vodka, wouldn't that be the Soviets? No, 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.800 because Great Goose is made in France. I just hear 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.160 vodka in a minute, I know that's what that's a 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:19.439 lot of people in France has the same reaction. So um, chuck, 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:21.679 somebody said, I think you said. Cruise chef said, I'm 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.560 gonna rain bombs down on your nuclear bombs down on 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:28.400 this canal, on all of you, and um, that must 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.920 have struck an American physicist because at some point somebody said, 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:37.360 you know what, ranting bombs down with canals, it's not 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.880 a bad idea. It might make a larger canal. Exactly. So, 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:44.400 in a very strange way, the Suis crisis actually helped 0:11:44.600 --> 0:11:47.760 lead to Operation Plowshare, And we'll go into that right 0:11:47.800 --> 0:12:09.680 after this. How about that all right, So the SUS 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:13.880 crisis was still going on in November nine six, and 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:16.760 it's a brief window that it was still uh active. 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:21.079 And a dude named Herbert Yorke. He was the director 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.760 of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Livermore, and he was 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:27.040 a new nuclear scientist, and he said, you know what, 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:31.360 uh what Josh Clark said before the break was right right. 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:35.600 He always follows me around. He says, maybe we can 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:39.040 use nuclear weapons to move a lot of earth. And 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:40.920 they got the name, as we said earlier, from the 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.600 Book of Isaiah, took it to the Atomic Energy Commission 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:48.400 and they said, this is a great idea. Let's right. Yeah, 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:52.080 they had a meeting and just brought people together and said, hey, 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.280 all of you guys, um, let's uh, let's figure out 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.959 a better way to use these things. There's a lot 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.000 of projects we want to do, so let's let's pretend 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:03.920 like the pies in the sky and we'll all shoot 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:08.160 for it. And that the old say. Um. So they 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:12.040 all got together and um started thinking, putting their heads together, 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:16.440 and again the US and um, the Soviets and Great 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.800 Britain and then France as well. I believe are all 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.640 just testing, testing nukes all over the place all the time. 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:26.440 But they're testing nukes throughout this era, throughout the fifties 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:30.520 and sixties and uh seventies too, I guess, um to 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.280 basically figure out how to make a better nuclear weapon. 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.760 What Operation plash here was, it was different. It was 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:41.200 using these nuclear detonations to study things that could be 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.320 used for like industrial applications. And one of the first 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.800 tests like this was called the Reneer Shot, which was 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:51.480 actually a part of a larger operation called plumb Bob, 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:54.520 which is pretty great. All the names when you read 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:57.640 them out are pretty funny. And the Reneer Shot, which 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.520 is the one nuclear test in a larger program, um 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:07.680 was the first, um, the first fully contained underground nuclear 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.920 test that means that none of the nuclear fallout escaped 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:13.680 into the atmosphere. And it was a pretty big deal 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.000 because it showed that you could do this, and they 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.360 also were looking at whether it was basically a proof 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:22.920 that you could use nuclear bombs for underground engineering projects. Yeah, 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:25.640 and it uh. It went so well, in fact, that 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:28.800 the a e C, the Atomic Energy Commission, which approved 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:31.280 the project to begin with, said you know what, We're 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:34.080 not even gonna hide this one we can actually talk 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:37.520 about it and press like we're proud of this. Basically 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.240 they did, um, and so actually nar was again it 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.840 was part of Operation Plumb Bob. It wasn't part of Plaushure, 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.600 but it was basically a proof of concept that this 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.200 could happen, UM, and that you could just kind of 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:53.640 study these explosions for things like um, you know, uh, 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:58.160 industrial uses. Yeah, it was their sizzle reel, right exactly. So, UM. 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:02.080 The problem was that the nuclear weapons you would be 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:05.840 using for a civil engineering project were really basically the 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.200 same thing as the nuclear weapons that you would be 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:13.200 using as weapons that are extraordinarily highly classified and just 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:16.520 couldn't be given to see civilian companies for testing in use. 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:20.760 So the government, that Atomic Energy Commission and UM, the 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:25.240 Lawrence Livermore Laboratories and all of those guys, UM, they 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.400 had to carry out the tests themselves to make sure 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.880 that they they basically kept a lid on it before 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:35.360 handing the technology over to the civilian sector. And they did. 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:38.400 And that was where plowshare officially came from. And it 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:42.040 started at a really bad time. Actually yeah, I mean 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:44.160 they weren't along. I think it started in the summer 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:50.240 fifty seven. Uh. In in March nineteen Khruschev said, you 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:56.400 know what, uh yet no more testing of nukes? Yeah 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.840 for US, which put pressure on the US. But eisen 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.440 Or didn't. He wanted to cease testing too, but he 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:04.880 didn't feel like he could, you know, be the first 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.720 one to do that, because you know, the rest of 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:09.240 the people in United States would think he's a big 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:12.119 what was? And then interesting though that Kruscheff and Eisenhower 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:15.600 both wanted to stop nuclear testing and totally neither one 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:17.600 of them had the support at home for it. Yeah, 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:19.320 So it took cruise chef to start it. So then 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:22.680 Eisenhower said, well, now we can stop. And there was 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.480 a moratorium on nuclear testing for a while. Yeah. Um, 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:31.479 But the nuclear physicists who were involved in Operation Plowshare 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.000 where like this didn't gonna last very long. The Cold 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:36.920 War is just too too cold. And as a matter 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:39.800 of fact, a series of events led to the end 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.440 of that moratorium within I think two years or was 0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.760 it nineteen fifty eight that the moratorium started? Uh, yeah, 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.680 March nineteen fifty eight, so then I think it might 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:54.400 have been three years. Yeah, three years later. Um, the 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:58.280 US and the Soviets started squabbling about West Berlin in 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.960 the Berlin Wall, which was one of my all time 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.560 favorite episodes. I always forget about when people ask, like, 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:07.640 what's one of your favorite episodes, That's definitely one of them. Fascinating, 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.840 it was a good one. Um. And then, uh, they 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:14.200 also started squabbling about the shooting down of a YouTube 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:17.359 spy plane in nineteen sixty Yeah. That really like puffed 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:23.080 up everyone's chest obviously. Um. And so in September nineteen 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:27.440 sixty one they said, I think it was kru Chef 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.080 again was the first one to say. Remember when I 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:34.440 said yet, now I'm saying whatever the Soviet word for yes, 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:38.960 is it? So let's start testing again? And so then 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.160 the US of course said, well we'll start testing again 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:45.680 an Operation Plowshare. They had gone into serious pre production because, 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:47.679 like you said, they knew it wasn't gonna last, so 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:49.520 they just started planning all the things they would do 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:51.840 once they got these bombs back. Yeah, they had some 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.280 downtime and they wanted to be able to be shovel 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:58.439 ready when the moratorium was lifted on nuclear By shovel 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.000 you mean adam bomb, right exactly? So um. Edward Teller 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:04.600 had gotten his other his people together and said start 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.119 thinking about this stuff. And some of the ideas that 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:11.159 had come up with were they were gonna blow a 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:16.240 channel through the kapinga marangei reef in the Marshall Islands. 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:20.280 I think I actually said that correctly, copinga MARANGUEI yeah, 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.800 thanks man, support that. So they were going to use 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.680 a nuclear weapon to blow up a live coral reef 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:31.200 off the Marshall Islands. I can't imagine how devastated that 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:33.800 area is just from the stuff they did do there. 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:36.800 Because where we did so much of our Pacific nuclear testing. 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.520 I can't imagine what has anyone ever done A lot 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:43.520 of studying on Nevada Nevada excuse me, not Nevada, No, 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:49.160 it's Nevada, but Nevada. Like I think of these plowshar 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:53.320 tests took place in Nevada. Yes, and there's gotta be 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.720 like that has been rained down with nukes underground all 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.080 over the place as testing ground, not just Nevada. But 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:03.560 I think they've we're definitely, like you know, took the 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:07.640 line share of the abuse, for sure. I curious. I'm 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:09.760 sure they've done tests and I'm sure they're just like 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.600 when the results come in. Maybe that's why to pronounce 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:19.119 their own state's name for anybody who doesn't know what 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:23.000 we're talking about. Any time we say Nevada, we get 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:27.120 eighteen emails at least from people who live in Nevada 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:31.320 telling us kind of firmly that we're saying it wrong 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:33.359 and please say it right. From now on, they say 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:35.600 it's Nevada, and my response is always the same. I 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:37.920 was like, we know, but you should know that only 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:41.600 people from Nevada say it that way. Everyone else has Nevada. 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:46.600 And now we'll get emails from six more people say 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:48.120 I don't even live there, and I say it right. 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:51.800 We poked fun. We should do a show in Vegas 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.800 one day. Sure, No, we should have our own theater 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:57.080 in Vegas one day. Yeah, we should. We should have 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.159 like um those like, yeah, that's what I was looking for. 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:03.399 Britney Spears, Yeah we can get Uh. Who is that 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:07.159 guy that sings like all the impressions Rich Little No, 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:11.920 the singer Danny something, Danny Kay, I can't remember his name. 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:13.840 Who are you talking about? He's a dude. He's got 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:15.359 a big act in Vegas where he just you know, 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:17.920 he's like now, I'm Frank Sinatra, No Bruce Springsteen, no 0:20:18.080 --> 0:20:23.040 Billy Jewel. Well, those are terrible impressions. Well, I'm not 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:28.879 the great Danny Danny Gans. That sounds familiar. I thought 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:30.960 you were so good at impressions that you were doing 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:33.920 an impression of Danny Gans is bad impressions. No, I 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:36.480 think he's supposed to be pretty good. Yeah, I think 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:38.040 that name's right. You don't get your own theater in 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.359 Vegas unless you're not Buddy Way. You gotta be Danny 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:48.080 for Britney Spears. Yeah, or David Copperfield. Oh yeah, got me. 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.280 The jet disappear and the statue of Liberty, let's not forget, 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:56.280 just gone. No tricker either, no camera tricks. He literally 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.840 made the statue of Lipperty disappear. I just said, Lipperty. 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:07.280 Where were we? I have no idea Operation Plowshare. Oh 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:09.160 we were talking, I note Chuke. We were talking about 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:13.040 all the insane projects that Edward Teller father the h bomb, 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:16.920 and his crew um came up with during the downtime, 0:21:17.000 --> 0:21:20.200 during the moratorium. So there's blowing a channel in the 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.919 kapingamar Ange reef off the Marshall Islands. How about a 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:28.040 new harbor in Alaska. Yeah, we'll talk about that in 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.560 a minute. Yeah, that was a big one one, making 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:34.040 canals and not just canal sea level canals, because um, 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.640 we did an episode on the Panama Canal and one 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:39.680 of the issues I guess you could call it with 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.000 the Panama Canal is that there are a series of 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:46.000 locks as part of the canal that basically are steps 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:48.920 for ships to go up and down a mountain range 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:53.560 sea level canals or where you blow a flat line 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:55.880 all the way through anything that gets in the way 0:21:55.920 --> 0:22:00.240 from sea to shining sea, so that the entire now 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:02.719 is at sea level, so as ship can just go 0:22:04.400 --> 0:22:06.879 Yeah bam. So that's what they're looking at. Sea level 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:11.640 canal excavation using nuclear bomb. Yeah, they were gonna call 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:14.560 that the It was either that one or the widening 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:18.119 of the Panama Canal, the Panatomic Canal. It's like, come on, 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:21.919 that's way too cute. Even everybody was blitzed on martinis 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:24.160 at this time. That's true. All right, Well, let's take 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:26.600 a quick break and then we will pick back up 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:50.359 with the restarting of Operation plow Share in December. All right, Josh, 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:54.520 is December. It's promised, liar, if you are in Carl's Bad, 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:57.720 New Mexico. You might want to take a weekend away 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:03.240 to Nevada and go work on a healthy glow, maybe 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:06.280 because if you live near there. They had something called 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:09.800 Operation Gnome, code named Gnome, and that was a three 0:23:09.880 --> 0:23:14.440 kiloton blast and this one it seemed like hold on, tuck. 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:17.359 Do you remember that huge coffee table book that was 0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:20.320 an illustrated guide to the life of Gnomes? It was 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:25.159 big in like the late seventies, early eighties. Really it 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:28.520 was wonderful. That's all I have to say. Okay, I 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:32.600 I thought for sure you're gonna be like, yes, no, 0:23:33.080 --> 0:23:35.520 I gotta Hopefully my dad still has it at his house. 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:37.720 I really hope he does, because I want to get 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:39.399 my hands on it. What's the deal Gnomes? Why are 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:42.000 people so into that? They're just cute and they're helpful 0:23:42.160 --> 0:23:46.000 and they hang out around psychedelic mushrooms as like you know, 0:23:46.040 --> 0:23:51.240 that's where they hang out under shade and stuff, right, Um, 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:56.680 So they set off the bomb and Operation Nome, and uh, 0:23:56.960 --> 0:23:59.480 they had a few objectives here. They wanted to see 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:02.320 how much heat it produced, what kind you know, is 0:24:02.320 --> 0:24:05.440 it going to cause an earthquake? Let's measure the seismic activity. 0:24:05.880 --> 0:24:08.760 They wanted to see if they could generate steam to 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:12.000 using turbines for electricity and basically setting off electric or 0:24:12.119 --> 0:24:14.480 um nuclear bomb. Yeah, but they kind of what they 0:24:14.560 --> 0:24:16.520