www.lesswrong.com/posts/8m6AM5qtPMjgTkEeD/my-journey-to-the-microwave-alternate-...

The post frames the nuclear-excavation “second Panama canal” idea as already canceled by the early 1960s.

However, authoritative histories of Project Plowshare and the U.S. sea-level canal studies show that the U.S. government’s major sea-level canal study (including evaluation of nuclear excavation) was ordered in 1964, with field work and analysis continuing into 1969–1970:

• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) describes that President Lyndon Johnson ordered the study in 1964, and that the subsequent study was published in 1970, effectively shelving the plan based on traffic projections. This directly contradicts the claim that the project was already canceled by the early 1960s.
• GlobalSecurity’s “Sea Level Canal Studies 1964–1970” page likewise states that field operations were terminated in July 1969, data evaluation continued until June 1970, and the commission forwarded its report to the President on November 30, 1970.

So while nuclear canal concepts existed earlier, the key governmental effort to evaluate (including nuclear excavation) was still underway well after the early 1960s, and only wrapped up around 1970.

Domestic microwave ovens overwhelmingly use the ISM-band frequency 2.45 GHz (this is also consistent with standard explanations of microwave oven operation).

A wave at 2.45 GHz has a free-space wavelength of:

• λ = c / f ≈ (3.0×10^8 m/s) / (2.45×10^9 1/s) ≈ 0.122 m ≈ 12.2 cm

That’s not “around 5–10 cm.” (A 10 cm wavelength would correspond to ~3 GHz, and 5 cm to ~6 GHz.) While other microwave heating frequencies exist in some industrial contexts, the post is describing typical microwave oven operation, for which 2.45 GHz (~12.2 cm) is the standard frequency.

The post suggests civilians had “just watched Hiroshima on live TV” (implying live television broadcast of the 1945 bombing).

That is not historically plausible and is contradicted by broadcast history:

• NBC Sports notes that the first live telecast of any kind from Japan to the United States was NBC’s coverage of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
• Separately, an excerpt hosted by the ANA Educational Foundation (citing the Television Broadcasters Association) describes how limited U.S. television infrastructure was in summer 1945 (only nine transmitters reaching fewer than 10,000 sets in large U.S. cities), underscoring that “live TV” was in its infancy and not capable of broadcasting a live event from Japan, much less Hiroshima.

Together these sources contradict the notion that people “watched Hiroshima on live TV” in 1945; the first live Japan→U.S. telecast being in 1964 alone is enough to make the 1945 “live TV” claim false.