4 ms·

Thank you for pointing me to Pacer, that was a fascinating read. They were apparently also considering digging a new panama canal with fusion bombs... In 1972

Thank you for pointing me to Pacer, that was a fascinating read. They were apparently also considering digging a new panama canal with fusion bombs... In 1972 they decided it wasn't economical based on fuel price compared to yellowcake, but fissile fuel isn't the primary cost of fission power and the engineering costs of pacer would seem to be much lower.

yamtaddle 4y ago
There's some old Asimov "Big Book of Science" sort of book I've got hanging around somewhere (dude definitely had aides/ghost-writers on some of that non-fic, right? Surely? At least researching and first-drafting for him to come through and punch up? Especially the more generic ones like that? I don't see how he'd have had the time to physically write that many words, otherwise, let alone also think about the words, considering his total output) that features the idea of nukes-as-tools pretty heavily, especially for canal digging and excavation generally.
- mbg721 4y ago
  He cranked out a ton of books. I'd believe it was just him, especially with his plain-English style.