Plans to nuke BP oil spill gathers steam

[The Rockerfly]

incoming nuke, it's over

OT: Awesome but I can imagine unnecessary, surely there is a less cool way to get rid of it

 

[Treblaine]

This is SUCH a bad idea! It's ONLY worked 4 out of 5 times!? That's a slim 80% chance of ending this disaster!

Why the heck are people acting like this is the first time? Did anyone read the article?

Well, I'm not going to make assumptions, not being a scientist and all, but I must say an 80% success record is neither bad, nor good

No, a 80% success record, FROM THE RUSSIANS, is good. If Russians can do it 4/5 times, I bet the US can do it 5/5 times. Just compare the American space program to the Russian space program and see for yourself.

I am frankly annoyed it even CAME to this! BP should've had back up plans to deal with something like this! But no, we were throwing experimental crap at the problem! This should've only taken been a week to plug...

I can explain it to you if you like:

Ok Stage 1: Blowout!
Gas pressure in the well spikes suddenly, it rises higher and higher, it is beyond all control, they press the big red "Oh Fuck button" that seal the pipeline with a gigantic hydraulic clamp... But it doesn't work... pressure build higher and gas begins bursting everywhere, rig is evacuated but gas eventually ignites and explosion and fire completely destroy the rig

Stage 2: Collapse
The burning rig collapses into the ocean, dragging the pipe that lead up from the sea-bed down with it, it crumples like a straw and fractures in dozens of places along a mile long stretch of the sea floor.

Stage 3: WTF?!?
The fail-safe stop-clamp situated on the bottom of the ocean was supposed to clamp the thick steep pipe shut but it didn't, and for the past 45 days they have been trying to get it to do that but it won't. So the one thing, that must not fail, has failed. Oh yeah, and this is a one-time-use component, you can't test it and reset it, it crushes the pipe. Once you activate it you simply drill another well.

Stage 4: Hairy Golf Balls
See, there are so many holes if you weld a patch over one hole, the oil will just start leaking out another. One thing they did try was drilling a hole into the pipe and forcing in golfballs, hair and glue that would run along the pipe till it reaches the kinks where it piles up and clogs the entire pipe leading to the holes. The problem is, this is just so deep and the pressure so high that the plugs just got pulverised and forced through. They can't block the pipe leading to the leak.

Stage 5: Redirect
this means cutting free entirely the tangled and leaking section leaving a nice round hole. The problem with this is the oil is now flowing faster than ever and the idea then is to attach a pipeline to that to basically collect the oil and take it away to be refined and sold. the problem is this is incredibly difficult.

Have you ever tied plumbing with the water pressure still on? Well try that while doing the plumbing from another room with your tools glued to the end of broomsticks, because that's what it's like having to use robots to do this job.

The reason this has more chance of success is it isn't trying to contain the pressure of the well, just redirect it.

The thing is BP have had dozens of back up and redundant measure but ALL HAVE FAILED.

 

[Danny Ocean]

How did Russia manage a situation in which there was no fallout? Detonating a nuke underwater will contaminate the sea, unless they can find some way to stop that happening, I really don't think they should do it.

After all, sea=rain+fish.

 

[dashiz94]

But again, no one has any idea how the fallout will affect the environment, or if it may actually do more harm.

No.

They have more than a good idea, they have extremely detailed, and accurate models of fallout resulting from underground detonations. It is a science based on controlled certainties and containment.

And the slick has spread to the Florida coast, if the cap they just attempted fails to hold, then Obama needs to spend a little less time complaining about how BP spent money on TV adverts to say how sorry they are, and needs to face up that he is the Commander in Chief, he controls all the nuclear weapons in the United States. He is the only one that can make this happen.

Not to sound like an ass, but how the hell do you know this?

And besides THAT, there is a ton of international treaties and such that prohibit such use of nuclear weapons meaning it would take a hell of a long time to actually do it. And there is a difference between testing a nuclear device underground versus one mile deep into the ocean. I really don't feel like drinking radiated water.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

theyve already capped the well and are siphoning away the oil. as seen here

plus detonating a nuke underwater releases a lot of fallout into the ocean and atmosphere via radioactive steam.

and im sick of people saying that BP arnt doing enough to cap the well. remember that every barral of oil lost from that leak is a barrel that THEY CANT SELL. plus the fact that they have to pay for the cleanup means that they'r gonna lose Billions of pounds on this.

Well at least they're not as bad as the people blaming Obama for it.

I really think that this might not work out as well as they had planned...

 

[soilent]

Perhaps this is why you should have, oh whats the word... a contingency plan for this kind of thing!

Does no one have any foresight?

PLANNIN AHEAD?! THA' AIN' AMURICUN!!!!
NUKE THE OIL!!! GO GO GO GO GO GO GO!!!

Note that the idea for this came from.....

Texas.

The state that wants to succede.

FUCK THAT SHIT.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

This sounds... like a terrible idea. But it would still be awesome.

Agreed. Terrible but awesome. It would also further cement the USA's rep as a gun/trigger happy nation.

We need practical ideas to solve this now, not maybe solve it but probably make it worse.

 

[Fire Daemon]

It looks like BP got a 25 kill streak against the local wildlife. Those birds are massive noobs.

 

[knight of zendikar]

They should just attach a really big pipe to wherever the oil is leaking from, that then diverts back into the system. Easy.

NOTHING is easy at one mile beneath the ocean's surface!

ALMOST nothing. A nuke would be very easy. Very stupid, but easy.

Actually, a nuke at 1 mile deep would not be that bad of an idea. The major problem is the tsunami that would occur as a result (depending on the yield of the device). Otherwise, radiation and fallout would be far less of a problem under water since there would be far less to irradiate. If the device was small enough, it may actually yield a positive result. However, it would be a PR nightmare for sure.

REMEMBER THE INVERSE SQUARE LAW! Radiation falls off drastically over distance!

I was thinking the same thing with inverse square law but you must also take into acount all the radioactive material that could easily be caried by oceanic currents. And I think many others are all content that it would be like some 200 megton hydrogen bomb. Its Possible to make a nuke thats even smaller than fat man or little boy. All thats necesary is critical mass for a brancing chain reaction to begin.

 

[tsb247]

They should just attach a really big pipe to wherever the oil is leaking from, that then diverts back into the system. Easy.

NOTHING is easy at one mile beneath the ocean's surface!

ALMOST nothing. A nuke would be very easy. Very stupid, but easy.

Actually, a nuke at 1 mile deep would not be that bad of an idea. The major problem is the tsunami that would occur as a result (depending on the yield of the device). Otherwise, radiation and fallout would be far less of a problem under water since there would be far less to irradiate. If the device was small enough, it may actually yield a positive result. However, it would be a PR nightmare for sure.

REMEMBER THE INVERSE SQUARE LAW! Radiation falls off drastically over distance!

I was thinking the same thing with inverse square law but you must also take into acount all the radioactive material that could easily be caried by oceanic currents. And I think many others are all content that it would be like some 200 megton hydrogen bomb. Its Possible to make a nuke thats even smaller than fat man or little boy. All thats necesary is critical mass for a brancing chain reaction to begin.

That is very true, but I would question how much ecological damage would be done considering how great water is as a radiological insulator. Then again, I'm not a nuclear engineer, so I am not 100% on that.

And Yeah, I agree. Who said anytyhing about sending Tsar Bomba into the Gulf?!

Spoiler: Tsar Bomba

A simple 1 kiloton device would serve the purpose nicely. Heck, even that may be a little overkill.

 

[Senrab]

While we're at it, let's drop a bomb down that giant hole in Guatemala.

 

[tsb247]

Perhaps this is why you should have, oh whats the word... a contingency plan for this kind of thing!

Does no one have any foresight?

PLANNIN AHEAD?! THA' AIN' AMURICUN!!!!
NUKE THE OIL!!! GO GO GO GO GO GO GO!!!

Note that the idea for this came from.....

Texas.

The state that wants to succede.

FUCK THAT SHIT.

No, the idea did NOT come from Texas. The concept of nuking oil fires and oil leaks actually originated in Russia during the Cold War.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20004828-501465.html

The Russians simply leaned over and said, "Why don't you guys just nuke it? We did," and someone over here said, "That's just crazy enough to work!"

So no... Texas is not responsible for the idea.

 

[IxionIndustries]

How about dynamite? Or TNT? It'd cause the thing to cave in on itself, blocking the oil from coming out, AND it wouldnt make our fish into mutated sea-beasts.

Or what about that underwater epoxy they use to fix underwater shit? You know, the kind of broken underwater shit that's underwater right now, being broken, in need of a fixing?

 

[Hashime]

I say give BP one last try to solve it using traditional methods, and then use the nuke iff they fail.

 

[Treblaine]

But again, no one has any idea how the fallout will affect the environment, or if it may actually do more harm.

No.

They have more than a good idea, they have extremely detailed, and accurate models of fallout resulting from underground detonations. It is a science based on controlled certainties and containment.

And the slick has spread to the Florida coast, if the cap they just attempted fails to hold, then Obama needs to spend a little less time complaining about how BP spent money on TV adverts to say how sorry they are, and needs to face up that he is the Commander in Chief, he controls all the nuclear weapons in the United States. He is the only one that can make this happen.

Not to sound like an ass, but how the hell do you know this?

And besides THAT, there is a ton of international treaties and such that prohibit such use of nuclear weapons meaning it would take a hell of a long time to actually do it. And there is a difference between testing a nuclear device underground versus one mile deep into the ocean. I really don't feel like drinking radiated water.

Read a book once in a while. A significant amount of the work has been declassified, such as how underground testing is conducted. Also my Dad works for Total Oil, he he's been in charge of drilling a lot of holes in his time.

Point 1: Why would you drink salty sea water anyway? the Water around the Gulf Coast is ALREADY uninhabitable due to the oil slick, and the longer this leaks then the worse it gets.

Point 2: no radiation gets into the environment. They'd drill under thousands of feet of rock and seal the hole with a MILE of reinforced concrete. You're being paranoid about fallout, ignoring the Real and growing risk of the toxic oil slick.

 

[Chogg Van Helsing]

every one who is pro nuke, are you remembering correctly what a nuke is? if they nuke it, the Atlantic, or lots of it, will be exposed to radiation. nukes are designed for killing life, they will not do anything else. if a nuke goes of you can expect death. if its underwater, it could even cause a tidal wave due to the massive pressure and will kill lots of wildlife.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Um, I don't know enough about this to have an opinion, but it seems like a bad solution to a really stupid problem they shouldn't have had in the first place.

And of course, there's the massive public relations problems that arise from dropping a nuke on an oil leak.