Solution for the Gulf leak?

[TheHolyGhost]

This doesn't sound like it would end pretty...

"Komsomoloskaya Pravda, the best-selling Russian daily, reports that in Soviet times such leaks were plugged with controlled nuclear blasts underground. The idea is simple, KP writes: “the underground explosion moves the rock, presses on it, and, in essence, squeezes the well’s channel.”
Yes! It’s so simple, in fact, that the Soviet Union, a major oil exporter, used this method five times to deal with petrocalamities. The first happened in Uzbekistan, on September 30, 1966 with a blast 1.5 times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb and at a depth of 1.5 kilometers. KP also notes that subterranean nuclear blasts were used as much as 169 times in the Soviet Union to accomplish fairly mundane tasks like creating underground storage spaces for gas or building canals."

[Moto]

I know you are probably just going along with what you have read, and yes it might work, but it is an epically bad idea. Contrary to what a few of you may believe; the forum isn't my primary job. I happen to be a geologist and work as research scientist dealing with CO2 sequestration and enhanced oil recovery. Putting a large radioactive source into the ocean could be very bad, and it is even slightly possible that it would not plug the hole. It would certainly cause a host of problems that could be just as bad as the oil spill. Government officials have even called co-workers of mine asking for advice on the tropic.

As pathetic as it sounds it is best to let the oil companies keep working on the problem. I have seen several other forum post saying that the government should take over the problem, but the truth of the matter is that they have nothing that could stop the problem. They have a handful for subs that could get to the necessary depth, and none of them would be outfitted with that they need to work effectively on the oil spill.

I'm a little dumbfounded that they haven't found a solution yet, but there is nothing simple about working at 5000+ ft Hopefully they will use a larger pipe for the current solution and they should be able to handle the full load of what is coming up out to of the ground.

Today's solution connected a 9 inch pipe to the 22 or 21 inch pipe coming out of the ground. If they use a significantly larger pipe than what is coming out of the ground they might be able to handle the full amount of oil coming up.

The pipe they are currently using is production pipe which is sort of a standard size and is probably as big as the drilling ship could handle.

Bombs are simply a stupid idea. They will get the problem fixed. People don't seem to realize that they are working on the cutting edge of technology. I know it sucks, but comparatively to oil history things are very good now.

This will not take hundreds of years to clean up. It may take 1 or 2. The spill is very bad, but the industry will learn a lot, and it shouldn't happen again.

[TheHolyGhost]

Sorry, I guess it didn't come across. It was intended to be sarcastic. I would not advocate detonating a nuke in the bottom of the gulf, or anywhere else really.

[Moto]

My bad, after I read it the second time I see it. The problem is that I probably saw a hundred posts today of people who thought it was a good idea. Most people have no concept of how drilling works. It is very complex and very simple at the same time.

[TheHolyGhost]

I gotcha, I imagine that it's a more sensitive subject to you because you have much more knowledge about it than the average person. It's definitely been frustrating to watch as an outsider because you see all of the technology they have at their disposal. I grew up on the water though, so I know how difficult it can be to work with, so I can only imagine how much worse it is under a mile of it.

[TheHolyGhost]

Not to hijack the thread, but what exactly are Alternative Energy Computers?

[Moto]

No problem. I'm not too sure. I can say that I have ever heard of Alternative Energy Computers.

Thanks for understanding my little rant. I assume you may have done the same on computer topics at some point in your life.

[TheHolyGhost]

Hahaha, I absolutely have. I asked about the Alternative Energy Computers because I saw it in your profile, but I guess those were separate things. Alternative energy and computers. My bad.