Scorched Earth is used to refer to the technique of doing as much damage as you can while retreating.
Say the Blues are at war with the Reds, the Blues are pushing into Red territory and are using the fields and buildings to keep their forces strong.
The Reds realize this, so they salt the lands, destroy the buildings, and burn everything while they retreat.
That is scorched Earth.
Keep in mind that not all of that testing was for war research. Some of it was for civilian purposes under Operation Plowshare:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plowshare_Program
This was a series of tests that were pursued to investigate the viability of using nuclear devices for construction purposes. The Sedan shot during Operation Storax was one such test:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedan_(nuclear_test)
In addition to the possibilities for construction, many things were learned about seismology and stellar nucleosyntheis. As you might expect, there were repercussions, notably fallout and these ideas were never pursued outside of the testing phase. The proposals were ambitious and included "building" new harbors in Alaska and Australia, mining in Arizona and cutting for railways in California.
.
Lessons learned probably also factored into the plans for the Orion Project:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
Say the Blues are at war with the Reds, the Blues are pushing into Red territory and are using the fields and buildings to keep their forces strong.
The Reds realize this, so they salt the lands, destroy the buildings, and burn everything while they retreat.
That is scorched Earth.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plowshare_Program
This was a series of tests that were pursued to investigate the viability of using nuclear devices for construction purposes. The Sedan shot during Operation Storax was one such test:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedan_(nuclear_test)
In addition to the possibilities for construction, many things were learned about seismology and stellar nucleosyntheis. As you might expect, there were repercussions, notably fallout and these ideas were never pursued outside of the testing phase. The proposals were ambitious and included "building" new harbors in Alaska and Australia, mining in Arizona and cutting for railways in California.
.
Lessons learned probably also factored into the plans for the Orion Project:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)