Science & Tech
Project Chariot was a 1958 Atomic Energy Commission plan to use buried nuclear explosives to create an artificial harbor at Cape Thompson on Alaska’s North Slope. Developed within Operation Plowshare and promoted by Edward Teller, it was presented as an economic development project but increasingly appeared to be a remote test of nuclear excavation as doubts grew about the harbor’s usefulness. Support in Alaska was met by opposition from Point Hope residents, scientists, and conservation groups, whose concerns about radioactive contamination and environmental damage helped halt the project in 1962. Though never carried out, later field experiments left contamination that required cleanup decades afterward.
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Point Hope, Alaska · United States
