Plan to use 520 nuclear bombs to create a canal to replace Suez

The US once planned to use nuclear bombs to create a 257 km long canal running through Israel to replace the nearby Suez Canal.

The Suez Canal and the planned American Canal. Photo: USA in Pixels — The Suez Canal and the planned American Canal. Photo: *USA in Pixels*

The US government once considered using 520 atomic bombs to create a replacement for the Suez Canal that runs through Israel in the 1960s. The plan never came to fruition, but having a replacement for the Suez Canal could have come in handy when a cargo ship got stuck there in March 2021, blocking one of the world's most important waterways, according to Business Insider .

According to a 1963 memorandum from the US Department of Defense 's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which was declassified in 1996, the researchers' plan was to use nuclear explosives to create a Dead Sea Canal across the Negev Desert. The new canal would be 257 km long, run through Israel, and be at sea level. While traditional digging methods are prohibitively expensive, nuclear bombs could be used in this case. Such a canal could make a major contribution to economic development.

The lab’s scientists estimate that four 2-megaton explosives would be needed for each mile of road. Historian Alex Wellerstein calculates that this is equivalent to 520 nuclear bombs or 1.04 gigatons of explosives (a gigaton is a billion tons of explosives). The possible route they propose cuts across Israel’s Negev Desert, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba, opening up access to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The lab notes that there are 209 square kilometers of uninhabited land in the desert that could be excavated using nuclear weapons.

The preliminary study found that using bombs to create a canal through Israel seemed “technically feasible.” But the memo also pointed out an issue the team had not considered: “political feasibility,” because the Arab countries surrounding Israel would strongly oppose the canal’s construction.

The memorandum was discovered when the US Atomic Energy Commission investigated the use of peaceful nuclear explosives (PNE) to dig useful infrastructure. The project was stopped at the experimental stage after the US found that 27 experiments with PNE emitted radiation into the environment. Meanwhile, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory still exists today and is a leading facility for nuclear research.

An Khang (According to Business Insider )

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