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  1. > In the 1960s, Project Plowshare studied the effects of a nuclear explosion on geological materials on the ocean floor. Now, researcher Andy Haverly envisions taking it a step further as he looks for a way to save the planet.

    > By pulverizing the basalt that makes up the seabed, such an explosion **could accelerate carbon sequestration**, which captures and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to reduce climate change, through a process known to scientists as Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW).

    > According to Haverly’s calculations, he wants to bury a nuclear device, a classic hydrogen bomb, **under the Kerguelen Plateau in the Southern Ocean**, at a depth of two to three miles in the basalt-rich seabed and about four to five miles below the water’s surface.

    > The explosion would be contained within the water, and the basalt should absorb and trap most of the radiation locally. The researcher predicts “few or no loss of life due to the immediate effects of radiation.” However, there’s a caveat. In the long term, he acknowledges that the explosion will “impact people and cause losses.” Nevertheless, this increase in radiation would be, according to Haverly, “just a drop in the ocean” considering that **“each year we emit more radiation from coal-fired power plants and have already detonated over 2,000 nuclear devices”**

  2. Hopefully Mr. Haverly is not currently in possession of one nuclear device.

  3. Bunsen_Burn on

    This guy is having non-Euclidian dreams filled with tentacle faces and is getting desperate.

  4. The super villians always sound logical when they lay out their conclusions.

  5. OldeFortran77 on

    This planet’s problems aren’t located on the bottom of the sea … if you get my drift.

  6. Lucky_Goal933 on

    The super villain/hero line was pretty much….Yes we will lose people but it’s cool because their sacrifices will save the planet 😳😳😳

  7. A hydrogen bomb is 1,000 times larger than an atomic bomb. Though hydrogen and atomic bombs are both nuclear, it seems disingenuous in the title to not note how different they are. It’s the difference between being a billionaire and a millionaire.

    [https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/2019-10/Development%20of%20the%20Hydrogen%20Bomb-%20Document%20Set.pdf](https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/2019-10/Development%20of%20the%20Hydrogen%20Bomb-%20Document%20Set.pdf)

  8. Wouldn’t the blast generate an enormous sound wave – even if buried – that would kill ocean life for a large area around the blast site?

  9. prosfromdover on

    It sounds absurd until you read the details, then it sounds worth exploring (if it will work), even if it spawns Cthulhu.

  10. Spiritual-Compote-18 on

    This will not work might well get an Asteroid to hit the earth ocean would more environmentally friendly than a nuclear bomb on the ocean floor where our food is born. Plus no Godzilla

  11. therealhairykrishna on

    How is he planning to dig a hole big enough for a H bomb several miles deep, several miles below the ocean?

  12. WeddingSquancher on

    I immediately think of the titans from hercules, careful not to break them from their prison deep under the sea

  13. If this could work than there must be a better way that involves less damage.

    Also hasn’t this effectively been done already with one of the many many many nuclear tests already undertaken?

  14. aha…. soso….. they found a sleeping great old one and now try to get rid of it? foolish…

  15. How many miles down exactly? Oh right, way too many. Whatever technological efforts we need to get that device down there could perhaps be better spent on, I don’t know, actual carbon sequestration?

  16. MAXiMUSpsilo5280 on

    It’s still Science Fiction. We don’t have even close to the capabilities to drill 2 to 3 miles into the earths crust under the ocean.

  17. PotemkinTimes on

    What do you mean “save” the planet? The planet is fine. You people are ridiculous

  18. Defenestrator66 on

    Someone could probably convince a certain world leader to nuke the ocean by arguing that the Lost City of Atlantis was found and that they are developing WMDs.

  19. When did a sports online rag become an authority on “research”

    And this “researcher” doesn’t have any education or qualifications for nuclear sciences or geoengineering (he is a programmer) and their paper was published [on *arXiv*](https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.06623), a website of non-peer-reviewed scholarly articles.

    Basically the entire idea is absolute garbage and shouldn’t be given any attention or a platform.

  20. How about we not let one weird fucking rando unilaterally decide they can do any nuclear explosions?