The plan never came to fruition, but having an alternative waterway to the Suez Canal could have been useful in March 2021, when a cargo ship stuck in the narrow path was blocking one of the world's most vital shipping routes.

According to the 1963 memorandum, which was declassified in 1996, the plan would have relied on 520 nuclear bombs to carve out the waterway. The memo called for the "use of nuclear explosives for excavation of Dead Sea canal across the Negev desert."

Source: The Indsider