| An underground nuclear detonation took place at this site in 1969, to investigate the possibility of using nuclear explosions to extract natural gas from low grade deposits. The test, a Plowshare Program experiment called Project Rulison, was performed by the Atomic Energy Commission and two corporate partners, CER Geonuclear and the Austral Oil Company, using a 43 kiloton bomb, at the bottom of an 8,426 foot deep shaft. The blast was marginally successful in causing the gas to collect in the cavity and fissures produced by the bomb, however the gas was too radioactive to be sold commercially. Another nuclear-device gas stimulation test, called Rio Blanco, was performed nearby in 1973. |
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