Posted on 05/29/2010 1:13:23 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
AP news break via ABC News Radio that the top kill plug has failed and has not worked. Link to follow...
ROFLOL...so true!
Because that’s what happens in some geological formations when you pop off a nuke, it creates a large underground void and it caves in.
Look at the floor of the Nevada test site. See all those conical craters on the surface? Those aren’t from the nuke itself. Those are from the subsequent cave-in, the pressure of the earth above the void created by the nuke, caving in.
If we had some level of confidence from the drilling geology that we wouldn’t make the situation worse, I’d consider it - as a last resort. Because with a nuke, you’re not going to get a do-over, and it it going to vastly, vastly complicate a whole lot of other approaches if it doesn’t work. Part of the problem here is that the engineers didn’t provide for a “Plan B” before they pulled the mud out of the borehole with seawater. It would behoove us now to develop and have a “Plan B” until the flow of crude stops. At this point, a nuke should be about a “Plan Q” while we work through plans B through P.
The constituents of the area, however, aren’t going to take very kindly to the idea that, if there is leakage after the nuke, that they have serious problems with isotope contaminants escaping into the GOM for years to come. Want to kill the fishery for the rest of the next 60 years? That’s the way to do it. The damage from the oil is being wildly over-blown - oil comes from the earth, there are natural microbes that eat oil, oil leaks from the ocean floors all over the world every day, without end, washing up on various beaches, etc. Even with widespread oil washing up all over the place, we might be talking of only 10 to 15 years before it is cleaned up. Compared to the problems we could create with a nuke, crude oil is a relatively short-lived problem.
The relief wells are already underway. This technique is known to work, just not on the timetable of the idiots in the news industry and politicians in government.
In engineering, we have a very shopworn cliche’: “You can have it cheap, fast or correct. Pick any two.” Liberal arts majors in management and government get their silk panties in quite the twist when we say this.
Then what usually happens is that we engineers see that the relevance of this cliche’ didn’t sink in, and we engineers repeat it - slowly and more loudly, for the people who rode to school on the short bus.
This is about the point when the shouting starts.
Just can’t post this enough:
Lets say Gulf fisheries and oystering, beaches and tourism is 4 billion per year. Ruin that for 10 years and that’s 40 billion dollars. Over the next 60 days of oil spew (waiting for relief wells) the pollution will make the fishing and oysters polluted for 15 years. No one will buy them either.
You know as little about the geology 5000, 7000, 10000 feet down as I do. The geology might be very favorable for a miniaturized nuke crushing the oil well. Don’t be silly about radioactive contamination up on top. It won’t escape up there and it it did it would be minuscule like Three Mile Island
Radioactive pollution is theoretical and nothing compared to the real ongoing oil pollution increasing every day while we wait for those relief wells to cap and seal the gusher well
Failure, thy name is Obama.
I’m here in the Gulf Region. Prayers for what? This is another global warming/swine-flu/sars/another imagianary hobgoblin these Marxists/Democrats in the media and government are creating to destroy oil drilling in the Gulf, another industry of capitalism.
Already Osama Obabama has banned drilling and explaration hasn’t it? That is what is going to kill the Gulf States, like LA,TX etc. as their economy depends on oil drilling.
Even if they allow some drilling , the moratoriams on drilling ,the added regulations etc. will kill the oil industry and the economy of the Gulf States and further cripple if not kill the economy of the U.S.A.
Has anybody thought of calling in Joe the Plumber?...just sayin’
Radioactive pollution isn’t theoretical - it has been found in Nevada’s groundwater down-gradient from the test site. Some of the contaminants have half-lives in the 70+ year range.
You’ve glossed right over the problems that arise if the nuke shot doesn’t work as intended, (ie, multiply your figures by four+ and complicate the hell out of other solutions), vs. the better known figures, proponents of the nuke option need to come up with a lot better plan that just “pop off a nuke.” It reeks of the sort of desperation I’ve heard on so many projects over the years from people who have no clue how to do the slow, successful work, much less the fast high-risk work, ie, they’re grasping at straws.
Comparing the contaminants to Three Mile Island means you haven’t done your homework about nuclear reactions. You can’t compare the by-products of in a sub-critical fission reaction of low-grade material used to heat water with a explosion of weapons-grade material - and we don’t know whether it would be a one or two stage device they’d use to pull this off.
There’s a clear problem here, and it is this: neither BP, nor the government hacks, are willing to play it straight with the public.
Whatever this liar says, we do have evidence that 0 licked black balls - tar balls - on the beach during his photo-op the other day. Given Andersen Cooper’s gay definition of “tea bagging”, 0 is a “tea-bagger”.
The Bamma likes ice hockey? LOL!
That reminds me of Richard Prior’s hilarious complaint about hockey: “The only thing that be black is the puck, and they be smackin’ that around!”
Go Hawks.
The Obammy administration was in on the sabotage. It fits in perfectly with ihs plan to halt oil exploration and promote non-financial sound alternative fuels.
With all due respect think. Small nuke. Very small nuke. We have them. Drill down and place it next to the runaway oil well. Of course how far down you drill and place the nuke depends on what the “rocket scientists” say....They can also say whether it will do the trick
And you know what? They know more than you about nuke feasibility. My mind is very open on using a nuke. I’d like to hear more
Many oil experts said it was very unlikely to work.
Why can’t they drop HEAVY stuff instead of mud and golfballs.
Oh my God, save us. Stop this. We need a miracle and repent. This is judgment. In Jesus’ name. Amen
LOL...same thing with pool. The white cue ball slams the black 8 ball for the win.
T. Boone did say it had little chance of success. As you said, he stated the relief well was the answer. Looks like he’s correct.
He sure made more sense than anyone else so far. They should give him 5 hours to talk instead of 30 minutes.
One thing I found out is that there is a large methane deposit beneath the Gulf floor. The release could poison the world. That might be a problem. ;o)
Please tell me you forgot the: /s
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