Project Chariot

In the late 1950s the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) created Project Chariot as part of the Plowshare Program. The goal of the Plowshare Program was to try and find ways of using nuclear explosives for geographical engineering; detonating nuclear bombs to excavate canals, reservoirs, and harbors. Project Chariot was the site chosen in Alaska to be the potential location of a new harbor (pictured above) created with the use of nuclear explosives. The Chariot Site is located half way between Kivalina and Point Hope on the northwest coast of Alaska which isn't too far from Noorvik.

Dr. Edward Teller (pictured above) was the mad scientist trying to push Project Chariot through. You might have heard his name before as he is more commonly known as "the Father of the Hydrogen Bomb". Dr. Teller even made a trip to the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in 1959 and met with University President Ernest Patty (pictured below). However, while some people at the University agreed with his plans and Project Chariot, many professors at UAF did not due to the unknown effects of the nuclear fallout which would cover much of northern Alaska that would be created by a nuclear explosion. Some of the professors who did not support Project Chariot were quietly let go from the University apparently due to their opposition to the project. In the following photo Dr. Teller receives an honorary degree from UAF in May 1959. (Search LIFE for more photos of Dr. Teller)

The AEC and Dr. Teller came very close to going through with Project Chariot but luckily they were stopped just in time. The folks of Point Hope, with the help of a 28 year old graduate student named Don C. Foote (pictured below), asked enough questions and recorded all meetings with the AEC to make the supporters of the project nervous which eventually led to the end of Project Chariot. Click on the title of this blog for more information from the U.S Department of Energy (DOE). Also search Alaska's Digital Archives for more information on Don Foote http://vilda.alaska.edu/

A great source for more information related to Project Chariot and the nuclear history of Alaska is 'The Firecracker Boys' by Dan O'Neill.