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An interior seaway for northern Africa

Abstract

One of the difficulties confronted in advancing explosives-engineering is that experimentation is both hazardous and expensive. This is particularly true of engineering experiments employing nuclear explosives, because there is a possibility that personnel located many miles from the center of the atomic blast may suffer from fallout or the migration of radioactivity through groundwater to public sources of drinking water. As a consequence, in order to establish courses of instruction in nuclear explosives engineering, it is necessary to use the special technique of deep consideration of a problem as a substitute for a laboratory exercise. This paper represents a summary of one such exercise in which students were assigned the task of performing the preliminary engineering on a project which could, if implemented, have considerable beneficial effect on a rather large area of the world. The possibilities of this project coming into being are quite remote in our time, largely due to the political ramifications and the current tendency to overemphasize the hazards of anything pertaining to nuclear explosions. But, as a classroom device, the use of the Project Analysis as a teaching tool has proved invaluable in training the students to think of the whole system involved rather than  More>>
Authors:
Champlin, J B.F.; [1]  Poston, J W; Lake, J A [2] 
  1. Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Environmental Systems (United States)
  2. Georgia Institute of Technology (United States)
Publication Date:
May 15, 1970
Product Type:
Conference
Report Number:
CONF-700101(vol.2); INIS-XA-N-229
Resource Relation:
Conference: Symposium on engineering with nuclear explosives, Las Vegas, NV (United States), 14-16 Jan 1970; Other Information: 12 refs, 6 figs, 2 tabs; Related Information: In: Symposium on engineering with nuclear explosives. Proceedings. Volume 2, 935 pages.
Subject:
42 ENGINEERING; ENGINEERING; EXPERIMENT PLANNING; INLAND WATERWAYS; IRRIGATION; NUCLEAR EXCAVATION; NUCLEAR EXPLOSIVES; TRAINING
OSTI ID:
20768859
Research Organizations:
American Nuclear Society, Hindsdale, IL (United States); United States Atomic Energy Commission (United States)
Country of Origin:
IAEA
Language:
English
Other Identifying Numbers:
TRN: XA04N0930075326
Availability:
Available from INIS in electronic form
Submitting Site:
INIS
Size:
page(s) 1643-1660
Announcement Date:
Sep 25, 2006

Citation Formats

Champlin, J B.F., Poston, J W, and Lake, J A. An interior seaway for northern Africa. IAEA: N. p., 1970. Web.
Champlin, J B.F., Poston, J W, & Lake, J A. An interior seaway for northern Africa. IAEA.
Champlin, J B.F., Poston, J W, and Lake, J A. 1970. "An interior seaway for northern Africa." IAEA.
@misc{etde_20768859,
title = {An interior seaway for northern Africa}
author = {Champlin, J B.F., Poston, J W, and Lake, J A}
abstractNote = {One of the difficulties confronted in advancing explosives-engineering is that experimentation is both hazardous and expensive. This is particularly true of engineering experiments employing nuclear explosives, because there is a possibility that personnel located many miles from the center of the atomic blast may suffer from fallout or the migration of radioactivity through groundwater to public sources of drinking water. As a consequence, in order to establish courses of instruction in nuclear explosives engineering, it is necessary to use the special technique of deep consideration of a problem as a substitute for a laboratory exercise. This paper represents a summary of one such exercise in which students were assigned the task of performing the preliminary engineering on a project which could, if implemented, have considerable beneficial effect on a rather large area of the world. The possibilities of this project coming into being are quite remote in our time, largely due to the political ramifications and the current tendency to overemphasize the hazards of anything pertaining to nuclear explosions. But, as a classroom device, the use of the Project Analysis as a teaching tool has proved invaluable in training the students to think of the whole system involved rather than a part of it. This paper, primarily a summary of a report submitted by a student team in the course of Engineering with Nuclear Explosives at Georgia Tech in the summer of 1968, speaks for itself in its inventiveness and its expression of deliberate concern for the betterment of mankind. A minimal amount of additional material was added by the senior author to draw attention to recent related events and publications. The students named the study 'Project Pecos Bill' after an American folklore character, a mythical super cowboy who invented roping and other cowboy skills. During a very dry spell, Pecos Bill is said to have used a pointed stick to dig the Rio Grande River and bring water from the Gulf of Mexico. The poignant results of his work can be seen in the agricultural splendor that is the Rio Grande Valley. The parallel to this present study is obvious.}
place = {IAEA}
year = {1970}
month = {May}
}