Peaceful Nuclear Explosions

The United States and the Soviet Union each had programs that took place from the early 1960s to the late 1980s that conducted non-military nuclear detonations that were known as peaceful nuclear explosions or PNEs.

The purpose of the PNEs was to study the use of thermonuclear detonations for commercial applications such as propulsion, civil engineering projects, extinguishing fires, oil recovery, mining, and even applications in space. Both countries signed the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions Treaty in 1976 after much negotiation.

The treaty stipulated that both countries would not carry out an explosion that was in excess of 150 kilotons, that a group of individual explosions together wouldn’t be more than 1,500 kilotons, and that both countries would continue to comply with the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963. In addition, the countries would have their own observers in the other country during a nuclear test to verify the explosions met the terms of the treaty, which was no small fault during the contentiousness of the Cold War.

The USSR’s PNE Program

The USSR conducted 124 PNEs from 1965 to 1989. Their program was called Peaceful Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy and was also known as Project 7. The first PNE was conducted by the USSR in 1965 and was also the largest PNE by either country.