Project Chariot was a 1958 US Atomic Energy Commission proposal to construct an artificial harbor at Cape Thompson

Cape Thompson, Alaska

Cape Thompson is a headland on the Chukchi Sea coast of Alaska. It is located 26 miles to the southeast of Point Hope, Arctic Slope. It is part of the Chukchi Sea unit of Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge....

 on the North Slope

Alaska North Slope

The Alaska North Slope is the region of the U.S. state of Alaska located on the northern slope of the Brooks Range along the coast of two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Chukchi Sea being on the western side of Point Barrow, and the Beaufort Sea on the eastern.The region contains the...

 of the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 by burying and detonating a string of nuclear devices.

History

The project originated as part of Operation Plowshare

Operation Plowshare

Project Plowshare was the overall United States term for the development of techniques to use nuclear explosives for peaceful construction purposes...

, a research project to find peaceful uses for nuclear explosives.

The plan was championed by Edward Teller

Edward Teller

Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist, known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb," even though he did not care for the title. Teller made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy , and surface physics...

, who traveled throughout the state touting the harbor as an important economic development for America's newest state. Alaskan political leaders, newspaper editors, the state university's president, even church groups all rallied in support of the massive detonation. Opposition came from the tiny Inupiat Eskimo village of Point Hope

Point Hope, Alaska

Point Hope is a city in North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 757.-Geography:...

, a few scientists engaged in environmental studies under AEC contract, and a handful of conservationists. The grassroots protest soon was picked up by organizations with national reach, such as the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, and Barry Commoner

Barry Commoner

Barry Commoner is an American biologist, college professor, and eco-socialist. He ran for president of the United States in the 1980 US presidential election on the Citizens Party ticket. He was also editor of Science Illustrated magazine.-Biography:Commoner was born in Brooklyn...

's Committee for Nuclear Information. In 1962, facing increased public uneasiness over the environmental risk and the potential to disrupt the lives of the Eskimos, the AEC announced that Project Chariot would be "held in abeyance." It has never been formally canceled.

The history of Project Chariot is recounted in the book The Firecracker Boys by Dan O'Neill

Dan O'Neill (writer)

Dan O'Neill is an Alaskan journalist and writer.-Bibliography:* A Land Gone Lonesome: An Inland Voyage Along the Yukon River.* The Last Giant of Beringia: The Mystery of the Bering Land Bridge....

(originally published in 1994 and revised and reissued in 2007 as The Firecracker Boys: H-Bombs, Inupiat Eskimos, and the Roots of the Environmental Movement).

Further reading