As these machines are often abandoned once the tunnel is drilled, a nuclear power source would likely not be a good idea, for risk of contamination as the machine decays over the years after abandonment.

For instance, there is still one of these TBMs buried in a chamber adjacent to the English Channel tunnel, that was abandoned, encased in concrete, and left to rot, so that the TBM coming from the other direction could finish the job. I'd be glad that wasn't a nuclear powered TBM.

Is it just me or did anyone else notice the writing on the sign in front of the boring machine? It looks like it isn't in English, and I think it's Asian. Why would you have a non-english sign if this was taken in Nevada?

One thing that I can point out is the personnel in the picture. There are 3 USAF officers and it looks like one enlisted guy in greens. That was the old uniform before they switched to BDUs. A bunch of civilians is normal for an engineering program. Most USAF Civil Engineering Units have many civilians working with the military.

Also, most of them, if not all, have a badge on their jacket. This is typical for restricted area access. Someone somewhere knows about this program but I don't think they are on ATS.

So why is the sign not in English?

Originally posted by NJ Mooch
Is it just me or did anyone else notice the writing on the sign in front of the boring machine? It looks like it isn't in English, and I think it's Asian. Why would you have a non-english sign if this was taken in Nevada?

Eh!? Do you mean this sign in the top-right corner?



Firstly, what do you classify by the term "Asian"?

I can't make out all of it, but it seems to say:


USAF
ICBM (Can't make out)
TBM START
DEC 14 1982

If anyone wants to request a decent copy of "U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office, photo number MX-027-30, 14 December 1982" from the DoE you should hopefully be able to find out what it says with clarity.

My machine's graphics card and monitor are not that great. After looking at your info and this pic on another machine it is clear as day for me. Thank you for this info and help.

Just out of curiosity, what sort of coolant might one of these "nuclear" TBMs use? Nuclear reactors use a lot of water for both cooling and steam turbines to produce power.

USAF
ICBM (Can't make out)
TBM START
DEC 14 1982

Everything but the ICMB-part makes sense to me. I thought ICBM was short for "Intercontintal Ballistic missile". Simon Grey, where did you find the "photo number MX-027-30" info?

Thanks to 137 for posting the patent papers

no problem, they are the best evidence that the US goverment is really capable of making complex underground facilities (dulce anyone?) for at least 30 years..

No they are not and it is extremely obvious. All you had to do was read what was on the first page to understand that the photo was not of a Nuclear powered tunneling machine.

erm, no. That's nt real. The antartica bit seems to be a viral campaing for aliens vs predator and a nuclear boring machine is implausible at best.

Now we know one way that WTC7 could be dropped straighter down than any other
CD, even though it was higher than any building ever imploded. Just tunnel underneath to made a handy catch chute!

The ones they used to make the channel tunnel were bigger than that, and they ran of regular electricity. They concreted them into side tunnels because it was cheaper than pulling them back out.