OT: Oil Leak Solution?

I must be stupid; isn't an atom bomb an explosive? Wasn't there a reference to use of an atom bomb for exactly that purpose?

urpose?

Apparently, conventional exposives can be used to collapse the pipe, but officials are worried the sea floor is so fractured (or whatever?), that the use of explosives might make things worse.

I have not researched the subject but at a lunch time conversation a fellow commented that the Russians have had several such instances where a low yield atomic device was used underwater to seal a leaker.

While it may be harsh for the immediate environment it is in the best interests for the surrounding area. I expect that will be what it takes to recover from this crisis.

John Ferrell W8CCW

It is a solution that can only be tried once. If it fails, it leaves the trap broken and all the oil will slowly make its way to the surface. You have to produce a blockage strong enough to withstand the very high pressure involved.

Also, once you do this, there is no going back and drilling the site to get the oil. If you break the seal the oil would start leaking again.

There was an NPR article on using conventional exposives to seal the leak. There is no need to consider anything atomic. It is completely unnecessary and would have no benefit over the use of conventional explosives. In fact, conventional explosives would be easier to shape to collapse the pipe. IIRC, the NPR article even mentioned that the Army (or some other government agency) had already developed ring-type conventional explosives to fit around such pipes. And they've been fully tested, etc... But again, the problem appears to be that they're not sure collapsing the pipe won't make things worse. I don't profess to understand exactly why.

There is no doubt that a lot of oil is spewing out. But the pressure, high as it is, is also moderated by the tremendous weight of the water. The pressure difference is not as high as you might think (not that we're hydro-geologists or anything...!)

These big oil bastards should be forced in the future (near future) to build a high tech deep diving large scale submarine for managing disasters like this.

The current mode of 'repair' is almost as bad as Ray Nagin's response to Katrina's approach was, not to mention the idiot's follow up.

oted text -

I hope this unfortunate accident, and the "drill baby drill" attitude give way to a desire for nuclear power here in the US. We need to reverse the Carter-era decisions against nuclear power and bounce big oil to the curb. Oil creates so many problems, and those will only get worse as the global energy demand escalates.

I'm actually hoping (sort of), for $5/gal gasoline this summer. Make it $7.50. Maybe then, we'll actually have the desire to build an energy infrastructure to meet out needs without funding the wingnuts in the middle east? Maybe then, we could actually start EXPORTING energy, like France does today with their nuclear infrastructure! God knows the US needs something it can export, given our near total lack of a manufacturing base.

The only thing we make these days is more debt!

-mpm

If there were gold nuggets littering your back yard, would you call someone to get rid of the nasty stuff? (Would you like my number? I don't charge much.)

We have a commodity just laying on and near the surface of the ocean. If you had a 42 gallon barrel of the stuff, you could sell it for 70 bucks. Wait until mid-June and you'll get > $84 for that barrel.

It is *fuel* so conceivably, you could make a nano refinery aboard ship to convert some portion of it to diesel to power the ship and the refinery. (And the tender to transport the heavy byproducts to land).

Heck, the only problem will be one of *scarcity* as hundreds of independent ships compete for this valuable resource.

(I'm only halfway kidding here.) :)

--Winston

It is the "broken trap" problem. Imagine that the rocks under the rig are a stack of upside down bowls, in a sink full of water with air trapped in them. This is the simple for of a geological trap. Now imagine you drill a hole in the top bowl, glue in a pipe and insert a drill through this pipe to drill the next bowl. This is sort of how the drilling is done. The casing is sealed into the top layers of the rock and the drilling is done with a high pressure applied to the outer casing so that the oil (air) can't all come up the tube and get away.

If you set off explosives, you blow away the top bit of the casing and hopefully seal everything off well enough to keep the oil down th hole. If the thing turns into a fractured mess, the trap is now broken in that there is a path for the oil to follow all the way out to the surface.

If this happens, there is no good way to fix it because you can't close up all the cracks.

It was a long established hole and platform. The explosion caused the environmental accident, not "drill baby drill", you dingy baby dingbat.

They should send a huge bladder *in front* of the seal/reducer/pipe.

Inflate the huge bladder further down the pipe, and it will reduce the pressure and flow on the side needing sealing/evacuation. It will allow more time to get solutions enacted simply by reducing, if not all but stopping the flow.

Think about it boys. 70,000 barrels times 70 bucks a barrel.

That is a lot of shrimp.

--Winston

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You must have trouble following an argument, or a thought.

What I said has absolutely NOTHING to do with the age of the hole in question, which I am well aware is of recent vintage.

Who's the dingbat now?

Maybe it's just me, but shrimp remind me of sea roaches. Courtesy of BP, now they'll be greasy sea roaches.

In fairness to the dingy patriot idiot who spouted off earlier, I suppose glow-in-the-dark sea roaches wouldn't be much better... :)

... leaving on the bottom of the ocean *per day*.

Did you see 60 Minutes tonight ???

For the cost of $4-$5 Million dollars, this is the result !

hamilton

It has been around for nearly ten years, dumbfuck.

I was not the one that said anything about blowing it up either, you dumb fucktard that cannot even follow a thread.

I've been hoping for the same thing, it's the only hope we have of waking people up to how much we take it for granted. Few people realise how insanely CHEAP petrol (sorry, gasoline) actually is. When I hear someone complain about the price of petrol I just want to slap them over the head!

I don't know, you make enemies, wars, and weapons pretty well too! :->

Dave.

Get it up to $10/gal... break the backs of the non-productive Democrats before they can pass a law requiring me to buy it for them :-( ...Jim Thompson