of the Plowshare Program Meeting #1583, 22 January.1960 and Notes of discussions NE ind Project Oilsand on 12 and 22 January: ed Jim Reeves, The Plowshare program discussions on 12 January includ and Newmark. Gerry Johnson and ALOO consultants Beers, Maxey the Plowshare advisory committee had advised going ahead with Gnome and, after discussing in great detail with the Commissioners the potential safety problems with contamination of the aquiferand earthquake problems and so forth, the ALOO consultants seem to be saying that the probability of hazards was negligible and therefore recommending approval of the tests from the hazards standpoint. Another Plowshare project, Qilsand, a project to recover oil from tar sands in the Athabasca area of Alberta, CAnada, by heating with a nuclear device explosion, was discussed at some length with Jerry Johnson, Philip Farley and representatives of Richfield Oil Cormpany present on 22 January. was tousea _ The initial oil sand test device whereas Richfield believed that would provide an economical return. Richfield further commented ‘That they believed that the Canadian Government was waiting for the U.S. to go ahead with the Gnome project before granting approval forthe Oilsand experiment. Mr. McConesaid that the U.S. had insisted at the Geneva negotiations that peaceful uses of nuclear energy be excluv’ed from any prohibitions on testing, and he believed that this reservation was recognized, at least in principle, by the Russians and would be included in any agreement reached at Geneva. The Chairman commented that he thought ina relatively short time the Geneva negotians would indicate one way or the other whether ‘ we could proceed with the Gnome project." 105