This report is based: (1) on information developed in earlier high explo¬sive experiments which determined the optimum spacing and burial depth of charges in a row to produce a channel uniformly wide and deep, and (2) on the Sedan and Danny Boy experiments, which provided data on dimensions of nuclear craters in both soil and basalt rock. This information has been combined with the 1947 route surveys of the Panama Canal Company, and estimates have been made not only of the number and yield of nuclear explosives required to excavate a Transisthmian Canal with nuclear explosives, but also of the cost of the explosives and the cost of their emplacement. Since there is an uncertainty in the correct scaling method to use, calculations have been made in which linear dimensions of the craters are scaled as both the 1/3.4-power and the fourth-root of the yield, W.
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