The USSR Once Tried Reversing a River's Direction with 'Peaceful Nuclear Explosions'

In the 1970s, the USSR conducted a nuclear experiment, codenamed “Taiga,” using three 15-kiloton devices to attempt diverting water from Siberia’s rivers southward to Central Asia. Despite the impressive detonation, which was detected globally, the project failed due to insufficient crater size and was ultimately canceled after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 heightened environmental concerns. Although a recent expedition in 2024 reported normal radiation levels at Nuclear Lake, some areas still exhibited elevated radiation nearly 50 years later.

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