Approved by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) on 27 June
1957, the program sought to explore Canada’s Athabasca oil sands
(Oil Sands Project) by using nuclear detonations below ground, but
disagreements between the United States and Canada eventually
killed the project. The nuclear testing moratorium from 1958 until
1961 also slowed the program down, but the U.S. detonated 35 nu-
clear devices between December 1961 and May 1973. One such det-
onation, on 10 December 1967, was targeted at the stimulation of low
productivity, low permeability gas fields (Project Gasbuggy). Other
projects, such as the exploitation of oil shale, never got off the ground.
The U.S. government discontinued the program in 1975. Overall, the
Ploughshares program did not yield any significant results in terms of
developing alternative sources of petroleum and other fossil fuels.POLICY COORDINATING COMMITTEES.Policy coordinating
committees were the National Security Council’s (NSC’s)intera-
gency working groups(IWGs) during the presidency of George H.
W. Bush. Policy Coordinating Committees assumed regional and
functional responsibilities in place of the multiple interagency groups
of the Ronald Reaganera. NSC policy papers were named national
security review papers (NSRs) and national security directives
(NSDs) to distinguish them from the Reagan era documentation.
Presidents William J. Clintonand George W. Bushhave continued
the use of policy coordinating committees in their NSCs. The com-
mittees coordinate the implementation of policy decided at the NSC’s
higher levels. See alsoDEPUTIES COMMITTEE; NATIONALSE-
CURITYCOUNCIL; PRINCIPALS COMMITTEE.POLLARD, JONATHAN (1954– ).Anavy intelligenceanalyst, Pol-
lard was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on 4 March
1987 for spying for Israel. Pollard reportedly began his espionageac-
tivities in 1982 out of the belief that the U.S. government was not do-
ing enough to support the government of Israel. He leaked thousands
of pages of classified information to the Israelis, later claiming that
he provided only information he believed was vital to Israeli security
and was being withheld by the United States—data on Soviet arms
shipments to Syria, Iraqi and Syrian chemical weapons, the Pakistani
nuclear bomb project, and Libyan air defense systems.156 • POLICY COORDINATING COMMITTEES05-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 6:27 AM Page 156