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Fracking by nuke — A 43 kiloton nuclear bomb is detonated underground in Garfield County, Colorado by the Atomic Energy Commission under Project Rulison, part of Project Plowshare/Peaceful Atom.   The idea was to free natural gas from sandstone formations.  Although successful, the gas turned out to be too radioactive to use.  High Country covered the event in “He Felt the Earth Move.”

Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons Eighteen Nobel laureates sign a declaration against nuclear war at a conference in Germany on this day in 1955. “If war broke out among the great powers, who could guarantee that it would not develop into a deadly conflict? A nation that engages in a total war thus signals its own destruction and imperils the whole world. We do not deny that perhaps peace is being preserved precisely by the fear of these weapons. Nevertheless, we think it is a delusion if governments believe that they can avoid war for a long time through the fear of these weapons. Fear and tension have often engendered wars.”

Nuclear test treaty signed by US and Russia this day in 1963, banning all open-air or outer space nuclear test explosions. Tests from 1963 onward were to take place underground. The treaty was partly animated by a remarkable citizen-science effort involving radiation surveys of teeth that naturally fall out from 5-7 year old children.

Nukes in space On this day in 1962, the largest nuclear weapon ever exploded in space is detonated by the US. The 1.4 megaton nuclear weapon was 400 km above the Pacific in a test called “Starfish Prime,” which was part of a series of tests. The explosion was visible from Hawaii, and the electromagnetic pulse sent power surges throughout Hawaiian utility lines, knocking out street lighting and blowing fuzes and circuit breakers. Nuclear weapons were banned from space in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

Marie Curie, French scientist and pioneer in the study of nuclear radiation, dies on this day in 1934 from the effects of nuclear radiation.

Nuclear Test Ban treaty signed this day in 1974 between the US and the USSR (now Russia) limiting the threshold strength of nuclear weapons to be tested.

First French nuclear test takes place this day on the Pacific atoll of Mururoa. The tests are highly controversial for the next 30 years, leading to confrontations between the French and various Pacific governments along with environmental groups like Greenpeace.

Manhattan Project begins under US Army command on this day in 1942. It is one of the most complex and expensive scientific programs in history and marks the start of what is called “Big Science.” The project ends up producing nuclear weapons from uranium and plutonium, and both kinds were dropped on Japan in August, 1945. At the end of the program, US Army General Leslie Groves tells scientists who are being de-mobilized:

“Five years ago, the idea of Atomic Power was only a dream. You have made that dream a reality. You have seized upon the most nebulous of ideas and translated them into actualities. You have built cities where none were known before. You have constructed industrial plants of a magnitude and to a precision heretofore deemed impossible. You built the weapon which ended the War and thereby saved countless American lives. With regard to peacetime applications, you have raised the curtain on vistas of a new world.” The legacy of the Manhattan project would be to put American science in the global lead until the early 21st century.

Nuclear weapons accidents On this day in 1989, Greepeace reports that accidents involving US and Russian ships have left at least 50 nuclear warheads and nine nuclear reactors on the ocan floors since 1956. Some 1,276 nuclear and non-nuclear accidents, and another 1,000 accidents, amounted to one major peacetime accident per week.

Rancho Seco nuke closed by public referrendum on this day in 1989. It was the first time a nuclear plant was closed by public referrendum. A study of nearby cancers showed that they had been significantly reduced after the plant was closed.