WI Project Oilsand goes ahead and works?

Couldn't possibly work. The nuclear radiation would make extract of the oil impractical at best and life-threatening at worse. Also, you would probably need an inordinately high amount of nuclear explosives.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Project Oilsand, also known as Project Oilsands, and originally known as Project Cauldron, was a 1958 proposal to exploit the Athabasca Oil Sands in Alberta via the underground detonation of a nuclear bomb; hypothetically, the heat and pressure created by an underground detonation would boil the bitumen deposits, reducing their viscosity to the point that standard oilfield techniques could be used.
Project Cauldron was suggested by L.M. Natland, a geologist working for Richfield Oil, in response to American efforts to find peaceful uses for atomic energy. An investigative committee was formed with the support of Alberta's Social Credit government. One of the committee's early recommendations was that, in order to minimize public fears, a "less effervescent name"[1] should be used; Project Cauldron was subsequently renamed Project Oilsand.
In April 1959, the Federal Mines Department approved Project Oilsand; Pony Creek, Alberta (64 miles from Fort McMurray) was selected as a test site.[2] Before the project could continue beyond these preliminary steps, however, the Canadian government's stance on the use of nuclear weapons shifted towards one of non-proliferation; out of concerns that it would increase the risk of Soviet espionage, Project Oilsand was put on hiatus.[2] In April 1962, Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs Howard Charles Green said "Canada is opposed to nuclear tests, period";[3] Project Oilsand was subsequently canceled.


They had a SOCIAL CREDIT GOVERNMENT!? Jesus, those guys were...weird. I thought us Libertarians were odd ducks until I met those folks.


Anyway...had they actually done it, I can't see whatever government was in power at the time staying in for very long. They'd have to stay in long enough to actually get it done, though. But I guess they'd have to get stuff moving fast in order to get it moved to the point where when the government got voted out the next group of schmucks in couldn't stop it.
 

wormyguy

Banned
Couldn't possibly work. The nuclear radiation would make extract of the oil impractical at best and life-threatening at worse. Also, you would probably need an inordinately high amount of nuclear explosives.
Nah, the H-bomb, having just been created, addresses both concerns, being both much more powerful and releasing a much smaller radiation dose than standard fission ordnance. 5 or 6 H-bombs will probably do the trick, and radiation levels will be down enough for work to be done safely by a couple of months after the detonations. After all, millions of people live and work in Hiroshima and Nagasaki today, after the detonation of much "dirtier" bombs in those cities, and I drove past a US nuclear test site in Nevada, right by the side of the road, the scene of dozens of detonations, the last in 1992, and I'm not in the hospital dying of radiation sickness.

Now, that being said, here's what I think would happen. The Canadian economy gets an oil boost, and supplies more of the Western world's oil, especially the US. The 70s and 80s oil crises are partially averted. The oil would be mostly depleted by TTL 2009.

More important is the fact that this will cause peaceful nuclear detonations to become much more commonplace. Nukes will be used to dig canals and tunnels, to move mountains, to flatten planes, to dig mines, to launch spacecraft. Nuclear detonations will likely be seen as a commonplace and not particularly threatening thing, and this will have vast consequences on future events.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
I'm also kind of freaked out that this would lead to an even worse version of the Tom Clancy's Endwar novelization.

My blood pressure's going up just thinking about all the trees they killed to make that piece of crap.
 
They had a SOCIAL CREDIT GOVERNMENT!? Jesus, those guys were...weird. I thought us Libertarians were odd ducks until I met those folks.


Anyway...had they actually done it, I can't see whatever government was in power at the time staying in for very long. They'd have to stay in long enough to actually get it done, though. But I guess they'd have to get stuff moving fast in order to get it moved to the point where when the government got voted out the next group of schmucks in couldn't stop it.

I think the popular view of nuclear weapons as intrinsicly evil is something that was much less developled back then, or else the goverment would not have even considered it.
 
Nothing to do with the nuclear aspect but an interesting development last week.


Techniques and instrumentation initially developed for ExoMars - Europe’s next robotic mission to Mars in 2016 - but now due to fly on a NASA mission in 2018, could also provide the answers to the globally pressing issue of energy supply.


A major study by the Imperial College London, funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), aims to use this new technology as an inexpensive and efficient way to help process unconventional energy resources, potentially having an enormous impact on the UK and global economy.

Professor Mark Sephton from Imperial’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: “The research involves using extraction-helping materials, called surfactants, to liberate organic matter from rock in space to gain a deeper understanding into the biological environment on Mars. We aim to show that the same technique could also be used to recycle the prodigious amounts of water necessary to process tar sand deposits and turn them into conventional petroleum.”

Usable energy resources are essential to the global economy. Conventional crude oil is a staple energy resource and accounts for over 35% of the world’s energy consumption. As the demand for oil exceeds supply, focus has now turned to trying to tap unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands. However, these unconventional fossil fuels must be extracted and upgraded to match the characteristics of more conventional oil deposits and make them commercially viable. The extraction process requires substantial amounts of water which is then left contaminated for extended periods of time. In just hours, the new technology can strip this water of its oily contaminants, removing a bottleneck in the refining process.

“Our new technology is an inexpensive approach that can be used to reduce the water demand during treatment of this type of unconventional hydrocarbon deposit,” said Professor Sephton. “Moreover, these extraction helping materials are environmentally harmless to the extent that they are edible. Our research at Imperial College combines first rate scientific investigation with practical engineering design.”

Dr Liz Towns-Andrews, Director of Knowledge Exchange at STFC, which is funding the study through its Knowledge Exchange Follow on Fund award scheme, added, “This is a truly valuable study which will not only reveal more about our neighbour Mars, but could also deliver enormous benefits here on Earth. The new research is a direct solution to our worsening energy supply crisis and is a great example of the seamless interaction of pure and applied science with engineering to solve real world environmental and commercial issues. Professor Sephton’s work is well aligned with the current needs of industry and we believe that this ambitious project could be of great benefit to the UK economy.”
 
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