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 → 10ren]

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.

[kf]

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 → kf]

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...

[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...