Importance

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Abstract

Nuclear devices are detonated periodically inside an underground cavity in which a working fluid absorbs most of the thermal energy released by the device detonation. The kinetic energy contained in the shock wave created within the working fluid is absorbed by shock absorbers located outside the inner wall of the cavity. This wall consists of adjacent plate segments that separate and recoil outwardly as do pieces of shells of fragmentation grenades. The shock wave kinetic energy is transferred to the segments that are constrained in their outwardly-directed flight by shock absorbers. The shock-absorbing system is solidly attached to the rock structure surrounding the cavity. The loading transmitted to the rock is of a much lower intensity than that which the plate segments sense, though of a much longer duration. The momentum trapped in the shock wave is thus absorbed by the rocks but in a manner such that the rock structure is not affected. The survival of that rock structure insures that the cavity could be used a very large number of times, sequentially spaced. The cavity is sealed positively from the outside at all times by specially-designed bellows that surround individual shock absorber elements.

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First Claim