Dulce Base -- Project Gasbuggy: The Nuclear Detonation Near Dulce
Dulce Base -- Project Gasbuggy: The Nuclear Detonation Near Dulce
The Plowshare Program
Project Gasbuggy was a component of Operation Plowshare -- the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) program to investigate peaceful uses of nuclear explosions. Plowshare explored whether nuclear detonations could be used for excavation, mining, natural gas extraction, and other industrial applications. The program ran from 1957 to 1975, conducting 27 nuclear detonations.
Project Gasbuggy Details
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name | Project Gasbuggy |
| Date | December 10, 1967 |
| Location | Approximately 55 miles east of Farmington, New Mexico; 21 miles southwest of Dulce, New Mexico; San Juan Basin natural gas field |
| Depth | 4,240 feet underground |
| Yield | Approximately 29 kilotons (nearly twice the Hiroshima bomb yield) |
| Purpose | To fracture tight gas-bearing rock formations and stimulate natural gas production; a joint AEC / El Paso Natural Gas Company experiment |
| Classification | Declassified; the explosion and its results are in the public record |
| Results | Gas production was stimulated but the produced gas was mildly radioactive, making it commercially unusable at the time |
| Radiation footprint | The underground detonation produced a permanent radiation signature in the surrounding geology; surface radiation levels were low but measurable; potential for radionuclide migration through groundwater existed |
Why Gasbuggy Matters for the Dulce Story
Project Gasbuggy's proximity to Dulce -- 21 miles -- places it squarely within the area where the cattle mutilation wave began approximately eight years after the detonation. Greg Valdez's hypothesis (following his father Gabe Valdez's investigative work) is that this connection is causal:
- The underground nuclear detonation introduced long-lived radionuclides into the local geology and potentially into the food chain through groundwater and soil
- The AEC / government had a strong interest in monitoring potential human exposure through the food chain
- Cattle grazing in the area were a proxy for human exposure (similar diet, similar environment, similar potential for radionuclide accumulation in organs)
- Government teams were conducting clandestine cattle biomonitoring -- sampling the organs most likely to accumulate radionuclides -- to assess the extent of contamination without triggering public alarm or triggering claims for compensation from ranchers
The Government Silence Problem
If the Valdez hypothesis is correct, the government's silence about the cattle mutilations is fully explained: acknowledging that government teams were sampling livestock for post-Gasbuggy radiation monitoring would:
- Acknowledge that Project Gasbuggy had created a potential food chain contamination problem
- Create massive liability for compensation claims from ranchers and potentially consumers
- Require admitting that a "peaceful nuclear energy" program had produced unintended and unannounced contamination near a residential area
Refusing to explain the mutilations -- even at the cost of allowing UFO explanations to flourish -- was, in this interpretation, the rational strategic choice for agencies trying to avoid liability.
Significance
Project Gasbuggy is the single most concrete documented real-world event in the physical vicinity of Dulce that provides an alternative explanation for the anomalies that seeded the Dulce mythology. It demonstrates that the U.S. government did conduct unusual classified operations in the Dulce area -- just not operations involving extraterrestrial beings.
