The Most Reckless Construction Plan In American History
get more than you bargained for: to receive an unexpected and often unwanted result from a situation.
The most powerful weapons in history were once considered the future of construction. In 1957, the US government launched Project Plowshare with one goal: use nuclear bombs to build things.
The logic made sense at the time. Nuclear explosions release enormous energy, and scientists wanted to put that energy to work. They proposed using bombs to dig canals and move enormous amounts of earth.
The proposals were ambitious. One plan called for 294 nuclear bombs to blast a new canal through Central America. Another proposed using bombs equal to 160 Hiroshima bombs to create a harbor in Alaska. That harbor would have been frozen for nine months every year.
In 1967, scientists actually tested one of these plans. They detonated a 29-kiloton bomb deep underground in New Mexico to release trapped natural gas. The explosion worked exactly as planned, and it released six times more gas than normal. But the scientists got more than they bargained for. The gas was highly radioactive, and nobody could safely use it.
The same result appeared in every major test that followed. The explosions were powerful. The results were useless. The US government cancelled Project Plowshare in 1977 after 27 nuclear tests.
The gas was there. It had always been there. The bomb just made sure no one could touch it.
Sample sentences
I thought I was buying a quiet little cottage, but with the leaky roof and broken pipes, I really got more than I bargained for.
When he agreed to help his friend move, he got more than he bargained for, spending the entire weekend carrying boxes up six flights of stairs.
We took what was supposed to be a “short hike” up the mountain and got more than we bargained for when a sudden thunderstorm trapped us at the top for two hours.
Origin
From the language of haggling. To “bargain” originally meant to negotiate a price or deal. Getting more than you bargained for sounds like a good thing, but today the phrase is almost always used ironically, for trouble, complications, or surprises you didn’t agree to.
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Project Plowshare: The Cold War Plan to Use Nuclear Bombs for Construction
