It was only yesterday that I thought that detonating a nuclear bomb to seal the BP oil leak in the Gulf - despite its popularity with the Soviets in the '60s and '70s - was not something to be considered at all.
However, it turns out that this method has some support from at least one experienced and educated man in the field of nuclear weaponry - Christopher Brownfield. Mr. Brownfield is a former nuclear submarine officer, Iraq War veteran, and a visiting scholar on nuclear policy at Columbia University. He wrote a rather bluntly-titled article over at The Daily Beast called "Nuke the Oil Spill."
Brownfield says that on the first day of the BP oil spill, his gut instinct was to nuke the well, sealing it off. Historically, explosives have been used to seal oil wells for over 100 years (although for the most part conventional such as TNT ) and there is precedent with the USSR of plugging oil leaks via nuclear blasts.
Brownfield points out that this method will destroy the well, rather than the convoluted and contrived methods that have been tried - and have failed - for over a month now.
However, using a nuclear weapon, even for a peaceful, good purpose such as this would pose huge PR issues for President Obama with regard to his anti-nuke stance, brought to high profile at the Prague conference.
On the face of it, it at first seemed absurd to me, but I suppose there is a reasonable calculation to be made about the radiation fallout damage vs. the damage of continued oil leakage. The well is a mile under water - surely most of the radiation will be contained under the ocean? Not that that's an ideal situation in itself, but it could perhaps be preferable to millions of gallons of viscous sludge contaminating our shores and wildlife for decades (according to the worst-case estimates I've seen).
As an alternative, Brownfield suggests that the US military and private
corporations could detonate conventional explosives to collapse the
well, avoiding the use of nuclear weaponry.
This seems like the ideal solution. Of course it will require
intervention from the government, because BP will not want to lose the
sunk cost of the well in addition to the vast oil reserves below it.
What do you think? Nuke the well?
Are conventional explosives the way to go?
Destroying the well might be the only option aside from drilling a relief well, which will take a long time.
I haven't heard anything else about the nuclear option - anyone have info to share?
Thanks to g mylin for the link to the article.
More on BP Oil Spill:
- "Cut & Cover" Effort to Stop BP Oil Leak Stalls While Potential Lawsuits
Loom - Obama Administration Investigates BP for Criminal & Civil Charges on Gulf
Oil Spill - Russian Newspaper Suggests "Nuclear Option" to Plug BP Oil Spill
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Comments: 20
The only fear we should have is everything Liberals try, to save our Country, have unanticipated Consequences! All one dimensional Liberal ideas suffer from this flaw!
get obama out of the way and maybe the BP crew can cap this monster.
in fact get obama out of the way on every issue and you'll see a better america.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/25/obamas-blame-others-approach/
Barack Obama and members of Congress may have to answer for the millions in campaign contributions they've taken from the oil and gas giant over the years.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64420A20100505
The man in the Whitehouse is a usurper and occupies the office fraudulently.
The FEC alleges that Obama also illegally took donations from Tamil Tiger leaders. The Tamil Tigers are, according to the FBI, the most successful terrorist group in the world. While the Hillary Clinton returned contributions from the Tamil Tigers, Obama kept them.
There are many other questions and mysteries regarding Obama’s campaign finances. The Puma P.A.C. blog notes: “Obama spent a record $744 million on his campaign but has disclosed donors for only $485 million of his windfall.”
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/obamas_foreign_contributions/
BP's safety violations far outstrip its fellow oil companies. According to the Center for Public Integrity, in the last three years, BP refineries in Ohio and Texas have accounted for 97 percent of the "egregious, willful" violations handed out by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
SO BEING THE CORRUPT POLITICIAN OBAMA IS HE DECIDES A SAFETY AWARD IS IN ORDER DESPIT THE EGREGIOUS SAFET VIOLATIONS AND "FINES/BRIBES" PAID.
Arrest the son of a bitch today!!!
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62T06520100330 NOTICE THE DATE
In the continuing blame game over the Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster, the Associated Press found that the Federal Agency responsible for inspecting the BP oil rig that exploded several weeks ago, the Federal Minerals Management Service, failed to live up to its own policy of inspecting the oil rig once a month. It gets better… Last year, the MMS awarded that same oil rig with an award last year for its “exemplary” safety history. Ah, the efficiency and effectiveness of government bureaucracy. Let the finger pointing begin!
whose admin??
The top recipient of BP-related donations during the 2008 presidential election was Barack Obama, who collected $71,000, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/05/obama-was-top-recipient-of-bp-related-dollars-in-2008/?fbid=C8062u38FRS
the above words arent my words but they sure do point a finger at the bat eared dork ineligible son of a bitch that thinks he is president.
The GBU-43/B is large, powerful and accurately delivered. high explosive. The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb [MOAB] weapon is a 21,000 lbs total weight GPS-guided munition with fins and inertial gyro for pitch and roll control. The bomb is the largest non-nuclear ordinance in the US arsenal. The 21,700-pound [9,500 kilogram] bomb contains 18,700 pounds of H6, an explosive that is a mixture of RDX (Cyclotrimethylene trinitramine), TNT, and aluminum. H6 is used by the military for general purpose bombs. H6 is an Australian produced explosive composition. Composition H6 is a widely used main charge filling for underwater blast weapons such as mines, depth charges, torpedoes and mine disposal charges. HBX compositions (HBX-1, HBX-3, and H6) are aluminized (powdered aluminum) explosives used primarily as a replacement for the obsolete explosive, torpex. They are employed as bursting charges in mines, depth bombs, depth charges, and torpedoes. HBX-3 and H-6 have lower sensitivity to impact and much higher explosion test temperatures than torpex. The MOAB weapon produces a very large explosive blast, with lesser fragmentation effects due to a thin-walled aluminum casing.
Non-nuke, made of components already proven in underwater blasting and capable of being placed by ROV.