Soviet Engineers Detonated A Nuclear Bomb To Put Out A Three-Year Fire

While nuclear bombs are often associated with mass destruction, these weapons have other uses beyond battlefields. And in 1963, a chance came for nuclear bombs to prove their standing.

The Gas Fire In Uzbekistan

A blowout at a gas well in Southern Uzbekistan in 1963 caused a huge fire that lasted for the next three years. Each day the fire burnt over 12 million cubic meters of natural gas, an amount enough to supply several major cities.

No one had succeeded in putting out the fire in three years and desperate times call for desperate measures, officials and engineers at that time decided to drop a nuclear bomb on the fire.

The plan seemed crazy at first but it actually made a lot of sense. According to physicists, if the bomb exploded at the depth of 1500 meters at a close distance to the shaft, the pressure it created could put out the huge fire. Experts developed the idea further and concluded that the bomb needed to pack the power double that of the one that destroyed Hiroshima or 30 kilotons.

After they had all the needed calculations, experts decided to go with the nuclear bomb plan as it was the best way at that time to stop the fire.

In 1966, the bomb was lowered into one of the two boreholes drilled near the shaft. Experts later filled the hole with cement before detonated the bomb.

Here is what Pravda Vostoka of Tashkent – a Soviet newspaper covered about that fated day:

The plan worked. After just 20 seconds, the three-year-long fire was extinguished.

The Results Of The Test

Soon after the first success, Soviet engineers were put to another test. This time, it was a fire at the Pamuk gas field that needed to be put out. The calculations called for a 47 kiloton bomb to be denoted at the depth of 2.44 kilometers. A few days after the explosion, the fire stopped.

It wasn’t until the second success at Pamuk gas field that Soviet engineers started to put their faith in the practical use of a nuclear bomb.

In May 1972, the same method helped extinguished a fire in the city of Mary. Two months later, they solved the issue of a leaking well. The last attempt recorded was in 1981 when engineers detonated a bomb at a well off the Northwestern coast of Russia.

The second explosion at Pamuk was the largest of all the explosions.

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