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Proving Grounds: Project Plowshare and the Unrealized Dream of Nuclear Earthmoving. By Scott Kirsch. (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005. xiv, 257 pp. $39.95, ISBN 0-8135-3666-9.)
Project Plowshare was a program carried out by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) from the late 1950s until the early 1970s. Its purpose was to investigate the use of nuclear explosives for peaceful purposes, such as building canals, creating harbors, cutting paths for roads and railways, and freeing natural gas reserves trapped underground. Scott Kirsch provides a comprehensive review of Plowshare's origins, development, and demise. He also carefully traces the growing opposition to the AEC'S plans. He describes his book as "a study of hubris and failure" (p. 4) and concludes by hailing the "triumph of...