The top secret plan to explode a nuclear bomb in Yorkshire
The top secret plan to explode a nuclear bomb in Yorkshire
In the 1960s, America was running “Operation Plowshare”: the idea that perhaps nuclear bombs could be used for peace, not war. At least some British scientists had similar ambitions, and it involved setting off a nuclear bomb under Wheeldale, in the North York Moors National Park.
Based on catalogue reference ES 26 in the National Archives, mainly ES 26/2 and 26/4. “Atomic Weapons Research Establishment and Atomic Weapons Establishment: Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Explosions: Files and Reports”. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/d…
The Open Government License does not cover personally identifying information, so names and signatures on documents have been blurred.
Operation Plowshare footage from the Prelinger Archives: https://archive.org/details/Plowshar1961 and https://archive.org/details/Plowshar1…
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0.08 -> A few weeks ago, I was looking through records
in the British National Archives
3.2 -> for a separate video idea that
didn't end up going anywhere,
5.6 -> but while I was researching I found
a completely different report,
8.96 -> secret and restricted when it was written
but now unclassified,
12.16 -> and it's the first time in a long while
that I've read some old archive file
15.84 -> and my jaw has literally dropped.
It was called:
19.2 -> "Possible Sites for Completely Contained
Nuclear Explosions in North Yorkshire."
25.12 -> North Yorkshire is a beautiful area
that includes two national parks.
28.08 -> This is the middle of one of them.
29.44 -> It is stunning, it is historic,
it is not somewhere that I'd
32.64 -> expect anyone to try and
set off a nuclear explosion.
35.84 -> The report was written in June 1969,
so just for context,
39.28 -> we're talking full Space Race,
white-heat-of-technology era.
42.72 -> Neil Armstrong would set foot on the moon
only about a month after that report was written.
46.24 -> And the report is talking about
Peaceful Nuclear Explosions.
50.08 -> Which was an idea that was in fashion
51.44 -> among some nuclear scientists
and policy makers at the time.
54.24 -> Maybe, the theory went, we could create
artificial harbours and canals
57.84 -> using nuclear bombs.
58.88 -> No more years of mechanical digging,
60.4 -> just put a few well-placed nukes
in the ground and, boom, boom, boom,
63.84 -> there's your new canal.
65.04 -> Or maybe we could help stimulate
production in gas wells,
67.76 -> basically nuclear fracking.
69.76 -> Or, and this was charitably
the most practical idea,
72.72 -> create enormous underground cavities
for gas storage,
75.92 -> instead of having to use
big above-ground tanks.
78.56 -> The US did run a couple of dozen
nuclear tests like that
81.6 -> under the rather Biblical title
"Operation Plowshare".
84.72 -> The Soviet Union eventually
ran more than 200.
87.36 -> But those are stories that have already
been told by a lot of other people.
90.56 -> By the 1970s, the US and the Soviets
would work out that it was a bad idea:
95.52 -> if you use a nuke, either for fracking,
or to create underground gas storage,
99.04 -> the radiation ends up
contaminating the gas.
102 -> But until that was figured out...
well, I don't think many people
105.28 -> have actually noticed the records about it
since it was declassified,
107.84 -> but it turns out at least some people
in the UK were interested as well.
111.92 -> Those people worked at the Gas Council,
and the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment,
116.16 -> and the report shows that they were
seriously trying to work out
118.8 -> if nuclear bomb gas storage caverns
were a good idea.
122.4 -> I kept researching, and found they'd
commissioned a full study,
124.8 -> laying out the pros and cons, comparing
the cost to other methods of storage.
128.4 -> They had picked a site.
130.56 -> Which was here.
132.24 -> Actually, literally, exactly there,
bottom of that ravine.
135.28 -> Wheeldale, in the middle of the
North Yorkshire Moors National Park.
138.24 -> The plan was: buy all the land
for about a mile around.
141.28 -> Drill down 2,000 feet,
about 600 metres,
144 -> with a special extra-wide drill bit,
145.92 -> big enough so they could drop a
25 kiloton nuclear bomb
149.36 -> down to the bottom of the hole.
150.32 -> I say "drop". Lower.
151.6 -> That's a big enough bomb to
annihiliate a city in the open air.
154.24 -> Plug up the hole, cover the top so
nothing comes out, hopefully.
157.12 -> Evacuate the thousand or so people
who live nearby, just in case.
160.4 -> And then... boom.
162.96 -> Not much would happen on the surface.
164.32 -> There'd be a bit of a jolt and a rumble,
a few birds startled into the air.
167.2 -> The local towns of Pickering and Whitby,
about ten miles away each,
170.08 -> they'd feel a minor earthquake,
171.28 -> and maybe a couple of buildings would
get a few small cracks in them.
174.08 -> I'm not kidding, that's what the report
actually says,
176 -> it just phrases it a little
bit more delicately than that.
179.04 -> It's not clear whether the locals would
actually have been told what was going on,
183.04 -> but I think it would have
been impossible to hide.
185.642 -> After that, they would let the giant cavern
that had been created 600 metres down
191.12 -> cool for a few months, and then
flush out and remove
193.68 -> most of the radioactive stuff
that was left behind,
195.52 -> which it turns out would have been
a lot more difficult than
198 -> they thought at the time.
198.96 -> Finally, they'd put some pumping equipment
in here at the top, and presto,
202.4 -> giant underground high-pressure gas
storage tank for relatively not much money.
206.88 -> And after a couple of years, they can
sell most of this land back.
209.68 -> Cost of the explosion, in today's money,
adjusted for inflation: about nine million pounds.
214 -> Which is... not actually bad for a
giant gas storage tank?
217.36 -> I suspect that was a very
optimistic estimate, though.
219.68 -> Even that was more expensive than setting up
liquid natural gas storage above ground,
223.04 -> but once you've the made the cavern,
it's much cheaper to run this way.
227.6 -> If, that is the explosion works as predicted.
And if there's really no radiation left over.
232.56 -> There were a lot of risks.
234.56 -> Now, as far as I can tell,
235.52 -> this never got anywhere near
the Prime Minister's desk,
237.52 -> there was never some high-up government meeting
trying to work out whether they should
241.68 -> nuke a bit of a national park.
243.84 -> I suspect it would have been
a very bad political decision.
246.48 -> And a very bad environmental decision.
And a very bad financial decision.
250.4 -> And... look, I'm sure there is some
possible alternate history where this happened,
254.8 -> but things would need to
have been very different.
257.44 -> The last reference I could find
is from November 1969.
260.08 -> The plan was worked out in theory,
and the minutes of the meeting from then
262.96 -> say that "further thought would be given
to what action should follow".
266.8 -> And at some point, in some other
record that I missed,
268.88 -> or maybe that is still restricted,
270.56 -> I'm sure there'll be a note that says
they decided not to pursue the idea.
273.6 -> Peaceful nuclear explosions would
eventually be banned by treaty,
276.88 -> conveniently just after the point
at which the US and Russia
279.44 -> found out they weren't a great idea.
281.44 -> And the North Yorkshire Moors,
thankfully, were never nuked.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceWZslOfEjs