NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS may be used to blast away sections of the Kra Isthmus canal across Thailand... a proposed shortcut for 500,000-ton tankers carrying oil from the Middle East to Japan. An estimated 34,000 million cubic yards of earth will have to be moved during the construction (compared with 327 million for the Panama waterway). The use of atomic power is expected to shorten excavation time from 12 to eight years and reduce costs by 2,000 million dollars. Plans involve using clusters of five or six devices detonated in salvos for a total of 139 explosions amounting to 41 megatons.
Local residents will have to be evacuated, according to New Scientist, a London publication, because fallout will travel more than 350 miles and secondary radiation could spread as far as 1,600 miles to the west. And what do the folks who live there think? Chow Chowkwanyum, a key figure in contract negotiations, complains, "Our problem is education. People have a particular fear of this type of device." Little wonder, Chow little wonder.
|
|
|
|