The Nome Nugget

Project Chariot Is "Ready to Go"
SEATTLE (AP) -- Project Chariot, the Atomic Energy Commission's plan to test construction use of nuclear devices by excavating a harbor in Arctic Alaska, is "ready to go" and can get moving by the spring of 1963, Sen. Henry Jackson told the Post-Intelligencer Monday.

The Washington senator said the AEC is reviewing the safety aspects of the experiment and chances are good that the review, to be completed this fall, will be favorable. That would leave only the lifting of the nation's self-imposed nuclear test ban to get Chariot rolling.

Jackson also disclosed, the newspaper said, that the AEC has made paper studies of possible future use of the peaceful atom in excavating new canals between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Using previous surveys of route possibilities, sites have been considered in Panama, Mexico, Northern Columbia. Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.

The experimental Alaska site is near Cape Thompson on the Northwest Coast of Alaska north of Bering Straits. Technical plans are complete.

If a favorable safety report is forthcoming in the fall, some funds will be made available in the 1962 budget, Jackson was quoted as saying, but the bulk of the funding will come in the 1963 budget.

Jackson, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Nuclear Weapons, currently is taking secret testimony on the whole problem of nuclear testing.

The AEC hopes to use Chariot's results on work on cost and construction of sea-level canals, harbors, water diversion, mining, and even pits for disposal of wastes, Jackson said. It will provide the "substantial basic information" that is needed for a wide variety of so-called "plow-share" situations.

As for the test ban, Jackson said:

"The test ban talks at Geneva have broken down completely. I, personally. feel we should undertake nuclear testing for Plow-share purposes, such as Project Chariot, and underground tests to improve our weapons posture in the light of the Soviet intransigence on this issue."

So far as peaceful investigations such as Chariot, he added, there is considerable feeling that they could be undertaken despite our unilateral nuclear test moratorium.

"This would require proof on our part that it is not in any way a part of the weapons development program," he said. "In order to assure the world on this question, we, of course, could invite all interested nations to observe the event in Alaska."