

Civilian Uses for Nuclear Bombs - jwb119
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/yourfriendatom.html

======
10ren
Australia is a huge continent, but only a small proportion is arable: most is
desert. Creating mountains in just the right places could increase rainfall.

But I don't think even the most powerful atomic bombs built so far are
sufficient for this modest engineering proposal.

 _EDIT_ and why would a hack like this get downvoted?

~~~
anamax
Creating a fairly-wide sea-passage through the continent (splitting it in two)
would probably be easier. Plus it would generate a lot of new beaches and dive
sites.

------
rms
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion>

This is the only way we have right now of traveling at speeds anywhere close
to c.

~~~
DarkShikari
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetoplasmadynamic_thruster>

We also have these; it's probably more practical, but it still requires a
powerful onboard reactor (in practice, probably fission or fusion).

------
krschultz
Mount Snow in Vermont wanted to use a bomb to create a back bowl for skiing in
the 60s.

[http://books.google.com/books?id=FOhrjSuy6rsC&pg=PA49...](http://books.google.com/books?id=FOhrjSuy6rsC&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=mount+snow+atomic+bomb&source=bl&ots=tEdg01cKDs&sig=lp5SBYbSBQyFNchJm0UjJXKKWzU&hl=en&ei=QDfhScqoM47glQfMueHgDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4)

------
DarkShikari
This is hardly a new idea; the Soviet Union did this for real many times:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Explosions_for_the_Nati...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Explosions_for_the_National_Economy)

