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Show Meeting Held in Grand Junction To Explore Atomic Rock fracturing Participants in a propose:! experiment to increase natural na-tural gas production by rock fracturing with nuclear explosives explos-ives met in Grand Junction. Colorado June 11 - 13 to discuss dis-cuss the project and visit the proposed site. The experiment, called Project Pro-ject Rulison. has been formally form-ally proposed to the A EC by Austral Oil Company of Houston. Hous-ton. Texas with assistance from its nuclear advisor, CER Geonuclear of Las Vegas, Nevada. Ne-vada. The proposal is under active consideration by th.5 AEC along with several other posible industrial- use experiments experi-ments in the Commission Plowshare program to develop peaceful uses for nuclear explosives. ex-plosives. , Representatives from Austral, Aus-tral, CER, the AEC's Nevada Operation Office, the Los Alamos Al-amos Scent ific Laboratory, and the Department of Interior's Inter-ior's Bureau of Mines and Geological Survey attended ,- the meeting. Should Project Rulison be authorized and funded, the AEC's Nevada Operations Office at Las Vegas Ve-gas would be responsible for nucear operations and public safety. Austral and CER would be responsible for construction construc-tion and test support. The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Labora-tory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, Mex-ico, which is operated for the AEC by the University of California, would be responsible respon-sible for the technical aspects of the nuclear portion of the experiment. The Department of the Interior's In-terior's Bureau of Mines, jointly with CER and Austral, would be responsible for redevelopment re-development of . the reservoir" evaluation portion of the technical tech-nical program. The Bureau, as part of the Department of . the Interior, also would serve as liaison with other Interior agencies on Rulison matters such as the acquisition of hydrologic and geologic data by the U. S. Geological Survey Sur-vey and land usage permits, if required, from the Bureau of Land Management. Austral recently completed a test well for the proposed project, and is conducting a series of reservior tests m the well. The group at the meeting will review data from these tests, which apply to hydrology, gas production, and gas quantity, and will determine deter-mine requirements for additional ad-ditional tests. The tests will be used to de-. de-. termine the technical suitabilities suita-bilities of the site, including safety. Should the experiment be authorized, comparisons would be made of gas production produc-tion from the reservoir before be-fore and after the underground nuclear explosion. The nuclear explosion would be expected to increase natural gas production pro-duction significantly by fracturing frac-turing the rock formation in wh'ch the gas is trapped. The group visited the pro- posed test site in Garfield County rome 45 miles northeast north-east of Grand Junction on June 12. After the visit to the proposed Rulison site, the pram, d'scursed proposed !n-c-itkms of test facilities, pre-lmvnnry pre-lmvnnry safetv considerations, considera-tions, construction, and logistical log-istical matters. 1 Ruhson would reqtrre t n Ivgher ycild nuolcir explosive explos-ive than Project fhshirgv, the first natural gis stimulation stimula-tion experiment wlvch took place near Farm' net on. New Mexico in December 1067. A h:cher yield would be needed because the Rulison fas-bear-in formation is considerably thicker than Gasbuggy forma-t;on forma-t;on and more extensive rock froeturhi? wou'd be required. The Pictured Cliffs formation forma-tion at the Gasbugsy site was about 300 feet thick, lving bout 3.910 feet underground. Rulison's gas-bearing Mesa Verde formation ranges in thickness from 2.510 to 4.160 feet and is some 7,5'10 feet underground. Rulison rrnv call for an explosive in the 50 kdoton range th" Prtrvni.it of 50.000 tons of TNT - compared com-pared to 26 kilo-tons for Project Pro-ject Gasbuggy. - Because of the renter quantity of gas in place ?X the . proposed site, Rulison could be a test in a potentially commercial field, whereas Gasbuggy was designed to be wholly experimental in character. char-acter. Gasbttgsv production and gas quality tests are continuing con-tinuing at . the Gasbuggy site and the final results and conclusions con-clusions are expected about a vearfrom now. Rulison would be a similar experiment but. in a different geologic n , ium, a different gas i-eid 7' at much greater depth R " son would add to knov,J (SI needed if nuclear expfe . Jl s! mi; i ah on of natural V production is to be, applji C oincr gas fields at other cations. It is not anticip that tne nuclear expfe- part ol the Rulison experim: v; wou'd take place until ih more data from (iasbl. in evmVT,ient are available' Sf |