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Show Nuclear Explosions Offer Opportunity in Many Civilian Fields Dr. Edward Teller, the great nuclear nu-clear scientist, last week told the Senate Select Committee on National Na-tional Water resources that nuclear explosions offer a great opportunity opportuni-ty for water regulation, and can be utilized without creating dangerous danger-ous radioactivity. Senator Frank E. Moss (D-Utah) is a member of the committee and said he was much impressed with Dr. Teller's testimony. "The scientist testified that, because of the force and cheapness cheap-ness of nuclear explosions, they could be used to divert rivers to flow through regions which need them rather than to the ocean, to fracture rocks and make them permeable so water trapped in one area can flow to another, and provide tools to greatly improve our water management," Senator Sena-tor Moss declared. Dr. Teller's testimony indicated that, through nuclear explosion, it might be possible to construct a large earth-fill dam in a matter of hours, thereby creating a useful reservoir. Senator Moss said it is" interesting to comtemplate that perhaps a nuclear explosion could have been used to construct Glen Canyon Dam for much less money and in a much shorter time. According to Senator Moss, Dr. Teller, emphasized it would take research and experimentation to develop specifications for nuclear explosions that will not contaminate contami-nate water and create damaging radioactivity, but insisted that it could be done. The University of California scientist, who is director of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Livermore, declared that the Russians Rus-sians are ahead of the United States in developing techniques to deflect water through nuclear explosives, ex-plosives, and are using these techniques tech-niques at the present time. |