Project Oilsand

Natland was working on location in the southern desert of Saudi Arabia and contemplated using the immense heat of a nuclear explosion while watching the sun set.

[4] This method could be effective for the oil reserves of the McMurray Formation, which could not be viably exploited with the technology of the time as it buried deep underground and highly viscous.

[5] Natland was dispatched by Richfield to Alberta's Athabasca oil sands in 1957 to scout possible drilling locations, which he found at the Pony Creek site, 8.7 km northwest from the nearest settlement of Chard.

In 1959, oil sands pioneer Robert Fitzsimmons of the International Bitumen Company wrote a letter to the Edmonton Journal, saying "While the writer does not know anything about nuclear energy and is therefore not qualified to make any definite statement as to it's [sic] results he does know something about the effect dry heat has on those sands and ventures a guess that if it does not turn the whole deposit into a burning inferno it is almost sure to fuse it into a solid mass of semi glass or coke.

In April 1959, the Federal Mines Department approved Project Oilsand; Pony Creek, Alberta (103 kilometres [64 miles] from Fort McMurray) was selected as a test site.

[1] In April 1962, Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs Howard Charles Green said "Canada is opposed to nuclear tests, period";[14] Project Oilsand was subsequently cancelled.

[15] Prime Minister John Diefenbaker told Parliament that the decision to detonate an atomic bomb on or under Canadian soil would be made by Canada, not the United States, and ordered Project Cauldron/Oilsand placed on permanent hold, citing the risk of upsetting the Soviet Union during nuclear disarmament negotiations being conducted in Geneva.

Rather, it was primarily changing public opinion due to the societal fears caused by events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, that resulted in protests,[19] court cases and general hostility that ended the US exploration.

[7] Natland and the AEC believed a 9 kt nuclear device was powerful enough to facilitate a meaningful test and be completely contained at the proposed depth with a "generous safety factor" to ensure radioactive debris could not escape.