Kittamaru Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 No, I'm not joking - Russia has suggested we nuke the oil spill. Or, rather, the well itself. As BP prepares to lower a four-story, 70-ton dome over the oil gusher under the Gulf of Mexico, the Russians — the world’s biggest oil producers — have some advice for their American counterparts: nuke it. 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. These kinds of surgical strikes to shut off underground leaks, however, were carried out only five times, with the last one occuring in 1979. And there was only one misfire, near Kharkov, Ukraine, where a nuclear blast was unable to stanch a gas leak. Happily, with a track record like that, “the chances of failure in the Gulf of Mexico are 20%,” KP writes. “The Americans could certainly risk it.” This is following on the heels of Russia's use of military planes, helicopters, and bombs on ice-clogged rivers to prevent flooding. I'm seeing a trend here for Russia - any problem can be solved with a sufficient quantity of high explosives... and if it can't be solved by a sufficient quantity of high explosives, it can be solved with a good nuke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRich Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 I read an article about this that its supposed to be some kind of a test for obama to see who he will listen to. I say hell no don't nuke it! It's 50 miles off our coast! I'm in south central Louisiana so as the crow flys my house is only around 160 miles from the spill. Thats too damn close for a nuke of any size. We will have enough damage to the coast without nuclear crap. They have 8 inch balls of tar washing up on the beachs right now in port fourchon. I say we all build small refineries in our back yards (no safety issues there) and go collect some of that tar! James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nige Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 kitty litter. lots and lots of kitty litter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 I always used to skim my way oil out of the coolant with a shop vac and it worked very well. BP needs a giant shop vac!! B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimGreg Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 I always used to skim my way oil out of the coolant with a shop vac and it worked very well. BP needs a giant shop vac!! B A giant shop vac, mounted at the front of a tanker, with an oil/water seperator hooked behind it. Dump the water back, and put the oil in the tanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted May 19, 2010 Share Posted May 19, 2010 Actually, the cohesive tension of oil is significantly greater than that of water, plus if the oil is floating, you can literally suck it right off of the top of the water. But yeah, that is the right idea. Hell, make the tanker run off of the oil it seperates and have dozens of them in a row... B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toby Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 I read an article about this that its supposed to be some kind of a test for obama to see who he will listen to. I say hell no don't nuke it! It's 50 miles off our coast! I'm in south central Louisiana so as the crow flys my house is only around 160 miles from the spill. Thats too damn close for a nuke of any size. We will have enough damage to the coast without nuclear crap. They have 8 inch balls of tar washing up on the beachs right now in port fourchon. I say we all build small refineries in our back yards (no safety issues there) and go collect some of that tar! James Mind you this was Obama's idea to start relying more on the oil in the gulfs. It's funny to see this blow up in his face and him try and back out of it like he didn't even suggest it. But if they nuked it, it wouldn't be anything of size enough to damage the mainland. I don't see why a controlled explosion wouldn't do the job just as well. Did they even try to dig the relief well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRich Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 I always used to skim my way oil out of the coolant with a shop vac and it worked very well. BP needs a giant shop vac!! B I used to do that every morning at the last shop I worked at. Now at Weatherford they don't care enough to even service the machines much less clean the oil off the coolant. Imagine owning a million dollar machine and just run it till it breaks then fix it instead of doing maintenance so it doesn't break. The last shop I worked at was called "Precise machine" how about that! Mind you this was Obama's idea to start relying more on the oil in the gulfs. It's funny to see this blow up in his face and him try and back out of it like he didn't even suggest it. But if they nuked it, it wouldn't be anything of size enough to damage the mainland. I don't see why a controlled explosion wouldn't do the job just as well. Did they even try to dig the relief well? They finally got a pipe over the blown casing so they can catch the oil and gas thats coming out and pump it into a tanker but can they keep up? The vacuum tanker was what I said they should have done too to clean up. The only problem is the crude is so thick its not just floating on top of the water but in giant globs that are 20 to 30 feet deep. It will be a mess for a long time cleaning it up but at least they got the leak under control while they try to cap it from the side. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekazgtr1984 Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 No matter what the solution, the repercussions are going to be tremendously negative environmentally... BP fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimGreg Posted May 20, 2010 Share Posted May 20, 2010 Oil seeps all the time, yeah doing it on purpose isn't a good idea, but it is in a natural state. Look at the oil that is washing ashore in Key West, it isn't from this well, so either some other one is leaking, or a natural seep has occured somewhere else. What I find funny is when we are in a time where people are freaking out about having enough oil, that they don't do more to collect every little bit of it that came out. Instead, they want to close it up and forget about it. They got a hole to it, keep right on pumping it into tankers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRich Posted May 21, 2010 Share Posted May 21, 2010 No matter what the solution, the repercussions are going to be tremendously negative environmentally... BP fail. Yes big time fail! These pics were sent to me this morning James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuong Nguyen Posted May 21, 2010 Share Posted May 21, 2010 What part of Louisiana is that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesRich Posted May 22, 2010 Share Posted May 22, 2010 The only discritption I got was the Bay Marchand Area. It was a popular fishing spot. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olddirtyrake Posted May 22, 2010 Share Posted May 22, 2010 Two words: MIGHTY PUDDY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGPHIL Posted May 22, 2010 Share Posted May 22, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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