Peaceful Nuclear Explosions

Basic Information

Like convenitional explosives, nuclear bombs could be put in use other than killing one's enemies during the wartime.
Most of the major nuclear countries were pondering such use for their nuclear arsenals, and at least two of them put an effort to practical implementation of this idea:

Operation Plowshare in USA
Project Orion in USA
Nuclear Explosions for National Economy in USSR
Programma E-3 in USSR

Sources

Project Orion in Wikipedia
Operation Plowshare in Wikipedia
Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy in Wikipedia

Game and Story Use

• For all intents and purposes, PNE programs are Terraforming, and studying of them can give an insight of costs and dangers of these daunting tasks.