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OTHER MAJOR ACTIVITIES
aries is expected to help determine differences between craters produced by high-explosives and craters produced by nuclear-explosive.
Sandia Experiments
The Sandia Laboratory carried out studies of the cratering mechanism using high explosives to obtain data which could then be treated
in laboratory analysis. These includedstudies of :
(1) Cratering with vertical emplacement of two charges, fired in
close sequence, to examine feasibility of using this technique to
excavate through high terrain;
(2) Ditch excavation with “row charges” (horizontal emplacement
of several explosive units through terrain of varying elevations;
and
(3) Investigation of the trade-off in reduction of air-blast versus loss
in cratering effectiveness by non-simultaneous detonation of the
explosive units in a row charge.
Otherstudies are planned on “area charges” in which several explo-
sive units are located on rectangular grid patterns to determine the
feasibility of producing desired horizontal dimensions in a crater
using an explosive array of lower total yield than required fromsa
single charge to produce a comparable crater.
Chariot
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The decision whether or not to proceed any further with Project
Chariot, a study of a nuclear excavation experiment on the northwest
Alaskan coast near Cape Thompson, continuedto be held in abeyance
pending the results of future field experiments. The Commission
withdrewits application for a withdrawal of the land from public
domain and reduced the area for which it has special use permits.
Camp facilities at the Chariot site were transferred to the Office of
Naval Research on May7 for use by its Arctic Research Laboratory.
The camp facilities will continue to be available for limited use by
the Commission for its continuing studies on the effect of world-wide
radioactive fallout on the arctic ecology.
Future Excavation Faperiments
The design of future excavation experiments continued during 1963
with input from the research program helping to further define the
types of information needed andthus influencing the concepts of these
projects. Site selection for Project Schooner (100-kileton excavation
experiment) progressedto the point where a preferred site was located
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in southwestern Idaho. However, because of certain considerations such