This footage shows a column of fire shooting up from a gas well in Uzbekistan.
The blaze ignited due to a leak and lasted 1,074 days.
The Soviets tried everything to turn off or divert the well, but these efforts only provoked new,
smaller blowouts in different locations. It seemed that nothing could stop the raging fire.
That is until the Soviets decided to take an unconventional approach… to nuke the well.
Atoms for Peace
Nuclear bombs are commonly thought of as only serving one purpose,
to cause mass destruction. Yet, in the 1960s, both world superpowers
conducted several tests that considered alternative, peaceful applications.
With accumulating and ever-increasing stockpiles in the United States and USSR, the countries began
assessing whether the weapons could be put to good use rather than to just have them standing by.
Soon enough, the United States started its Operation Plowshare to assess whether
nuclear arms could be employed for excavation or natural gas fracturing.
Most tests for the operation were conducted in the Nevada desert over 20 years between 1958 to 1975,
leaving behind a number of craters.
The Soviet Union implemented its own program
called “Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy.” This also focused
primarily on practical applications in mining and extraction of natural gas.
However, one significant difference is that the United States preoccupied itself with
the environmental effect of the tests. It was an aspect that the Soviets almost
completely neglected, and the USSR made some questionable decisions. One test contaminated a
highly-populated area along the Volga river. They even used a nuclear bomb to create a
reservoir by bombing another river - an act that carries radioactive consequences to this day.
During their research into these new unconventional uses of nuclear weapons, scientists
in both countries began to conceptualize solving other problems with peaceful nukes.
These included shutting down oil and gas leaks and capping dangerous volcanic activity.
The Oil Leak
The fire in question started when a well Southern Uzbekistan suffered from an unexpected
blowout in 1963. The blast occurred at a depth of 2.4 kilometers underground.
The escaping natural gas shot out of the ground in a column of fire that burned reliably for
nearly three years and released about 12 million cubic meters of the valuable fossil fuel each day.
With the daily output of the leak, the Soviets could have fuelled some cities,
making the issue of the blowout even more frustrating.
No one in the Soviet Union knew how to put out such a complex fire.
At a point of absolute desperation, the Soviets began considering whether dropping
a nuclear bomb at the site would be a feasible and functional way of dealing with the issue.
Scientists, officials, and engineers set to work on a concept for what nuking the area would look
like. Physicists estimated that detonating a bomb at a depth of 1,500 meters could close the
shaft while the pressure caused could cut off the fire. Furthermore, 30 kilotons, double the power
of the little boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima, would be needed for a successful operation.
The operation would be conducted in the fall of 1966. The area was in a desert environment,
meaning that any mishaps would hopefully have few consequences for civilians. The
field at Urtabulak was at least 100 miles from the nearest developed area, the southeast of Bukhara.
By then, the heat of the burning fire had carved out a considerable crater in the desert sand.
Nukes and Leaks
After calculating the necessary depth and strength of the bomb, officials determined that a nuclear
blast would not only stop the fire, but it would be the best option. They first had two boreholes
drilled down to the blowout area, placing a tube through which they could carry the bomb
down to a depth of 1.4 kilometers. A 30-kiloton nuke was lowered down one of the boreholes,
and the well was filled up with cement to prevent radiation from escaping.
The whole experiment was captured on film. Details of the operation were recounted in
the Soviet newspaper “Pravada Vostoka of Tashkent,” which is located in Uzbekistan.
Of the event, the newspaper published the following: [QUOTE] “On that cold autumn day in
1966, an underground tremor of unprecedented force shook the with a sparse grass cover on white sand.
A dusty haze rose over the desert. The orange colored torch of the blazing well diminished,
first slowly, then more rapidly, until it flickered and finally died out. For the first time
in 1,064 days, quiet descended on the area. The jet-like roar of the gas well had been silenced.”
It took about 20 seconds for the fire to be extinguished by the nuclear explosion.
The Soviet engineers had managed to use the nuke successfully and eliminate a 3 year-long problem.
It is generally agreed upon that this was the first experiment of that nature.
Furthermore, upon sharing information with the United States, the occasion
marked the first time they shared the exact location of a nuclear blast.
This would not be the only instance where the Soviets were able to test their technology in
such a way. A few months after the Uzbekistan gas leak was sealed, another fire broke out
at the nearby Pamuk field, shooting flames through several boreholes. To stop that fire,
engineers opted to send a 47 kiloton bomb 2.44 kilometers into the ground,
following a similar protocol. This second experiment was a success as well.
Russia is thought to have used the technique at least five times. Eventually,
a Soviet weapons lab developed a specific nuclear
bomb intended to close holes between 82 and 164 meters away from the blast.