Peaceful Nuclear Explosion

During the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union both seriously explored the idea of using nuclear explosives for excavation, construction, geological exploration, mineral extraction, and (of all things) firefighting. You can read more about that here:
Peaceful nuclear explosions

The American program was known as Operation Plowshare, an allusion to a passage from the book of Isaiah: "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Apparently no one liked the name Operation Pruning Hook. As fitting as that excerpt may be, the Soviets didn't much care for Biblical allusions, and gave their program the rather anemic name Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy. In all, the Americans detonated 27 nuclear devices during Plowshare and the Soviets conducted 115 explosions in their program.

Both nations extensively studied the prospect of using the tremendous energy and power output of nuclear explosives to move lots of dirt very quickly. American nuclear scientists considered building a large artificial harbor in Alaska and cutting a second canal across Panama using thermonuclear bombs, but balked after the Storax Sedan proof-of-concept test (pictured) injected an unacceptably radioactive plume of steam and dust into the jet stream. Not to be deterred, the Soviets forged ahead and successfully created a large earthen dam on the Chagan River in Kazakhstan with the lip of a nuclear crater.

By 1973 the American program was effectively over, as excavation proved too polluting and efforts to stimulate natural gas production with nuclear shock waves disappointed expectations. The Soviets seem to have found more to their liking, since they continued using nuclear explosives to search for mineral deposits across Sibera and put out raging oil field fires until the wall-crumbling end of the Cold War in 1989. To be sure, nuclear contamination is nothing to sneeze at, but we'd be remiss to assume that the power of nuclear explosions is only the domain of the weapons designers. History shows that's just not true.