It looks like Matt Simmons isn’t the only one who thinks a Small Bore Nuclear Device is Our Only Option. The idea is gaining traction, and the Russians, at least some of them like the former minister of nuclear energy Viktor Mikhailov, think it’s the only way to seal the leak:
“A nuclear explosion over the leak,” he says nonchalantly puffing a cigarette as he sits in a conference room at the Institute of Strategic Stability, where he is a director. “I don’t know what BP is waiting for, they are wasting their time. Only about 10 kilotons of nuclear explosion capacity and the problem is solved.”
A nuclear fix to the leaking well has been touted online and in the occasional newspaper op-ed for weeks now. Washington has repeatedly dismissed the idea and BP execs say they are not considering an explosion — nuclear or otherwise. But as a series of efforts to plug the 60,000 barrels of oil a day gushing from the sea floor have failed, talk of an extreme solution refuses to die.
For some, blasting the problem seems the most logical answer in the world. Mikhailov has had a distinguished career in the nuclear field, helping to close a Soviet Union program that used nuclear explosions to seal gas leaks. Ordinarily he’s an opponent of nuclear blasts, but he says an underwater explosion in the Gulf of Mexico would not be harmful and could cost no more than $10 million. That compares with the $2.35 billion BP has paid out in cleanup and compensation costs so far. “This option is worth the money,” he says.
source: Reuters
Let’s assume, hypothetically, that the relief wells BP is drilling don’t seal the leak.
What then?
Is there really another option, or do we just let the well continue to gush oil until it runs out in perhaps 10 to 20 years?
H/T Zero Hedge
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lots of ‘what if’s’…. ‘what if’ the blast opens the well head over a wider area? we already know that there are cracks leading – what? 1000′? – down the well shaft? also, what are the ramifications to the other wells in the area? would that blow-up other wells with the explosive pressures that are inevitable with a nuclear blast?? risk sealing one well, while opening up 50 more… lots and lots o’ questions… neither BP nor the gov’t have been very truthful… why start now?
Many of the people that cry “use a nuke” arte like juveniles who just want to set off big bombs.
what if the nuke shatters the salt dome that currently is containing most of this oil?
What if it creates a sea floor crack 1,000 feet long that pumps a trillion gallons per hour?
How could anyone,at anytime ever stop it?
I say try the bottom kill in August or whenever they get the drill there and then worry about nukes.
Comments…..Using a nuke will only hasten the inevitable. While researching Edgar Cayce’s prediction on the oil spill last night I found what he had foretold very frightening. Cayce claims that we will be unable to stop the flow of oil and that it will continue gushing crude & methane until the well runs dry. Once the well runs dry, the crevice left behind will start filling with water that is only a few degrees above freezing. Shortly after, this frigid water will come in contact with the outer reaches of the earths core, which is around 400 degrees. Cayce goes on to predict that a huge explosian will be the result, sending a tsunami wave 600 feet in height that will destroy the gulf coast. Secondly, Cayce foretells that this explosian will cause a chain reaction along the Madrid fault line with forces so strong that it will unleash the waters of the great lakes into the Mighty Mississippi wipping out Chicago and St. Luis. The USA will be split into two continents! Yes indeed, we live in fascinating times!
It is not a good idea. We don’t want radiated oil.
If we can’t plug this well shut then Cayce’s prediction may very well come to pass.
From what I have read/heard, water may start flowing in there even before the well is completely empty of oil/methane… Not sure of the science behind this.
In any case, if water does get in there, then we’ve got a much bigger problem then dead zones in the Gulf, as you described.
I suppose bugging out to a really tall building really won’t help if a 600 ft wave comes towards Galveston…
Why does it have to be a nuke.  John Wayne used normal explosives to cap many a well.
Sometimes it isn’t a great idea to broadcast what appears to be an ‘obvious’ solution. Let’s consider the suggestion one that is worthy of consideration. The real problem is Obummer would probably outsource this to the Russians, and…well who really knows? Maybe this is something they’d (the Russians) would like to see Obummer do, because they’ve probably run it a few hundred thousand times on their computers to simulate what would happen…but then again, maybe Obummer himself has been directed to outsource this to the the Israeli’s, they are probably BP’s source for inspiration at the moment.
I’m sure that there are many good ideas on ways to stop this oil leak but they wont be listened to because they come from high school educated people with common sense who could’nt possible have any good ideas on how to stop such a complicated problem.
No Nukes:Â Â I have read Edgar Cayce extensively but never found the info you describe. Could you give some specifics as to where to locate this prediction?
Thanks
My dad and I were discussing this the other day. He’s a geologist, degree from LSU. Part of his studies as well as later work with an oil company was to study the geologic formation of the GoM. He was appalled at the idea of using a nuke in the Gulf due to the very unstable formations. Tilted, layered between soft rock deposits and salt layers, there is too great a potential for untold disaster of the salt domes or tilted layers give way. It’s one thing to run a well bore down through these formation, it’s another thing entirely to use something as powerful as a nuke. Granted, we have a major disaster now with the oil and gas, but we could bring about Cayce’s prediction and have an even greater disaster. I sure hope more sensible heads prevail on this one!Â
Already discussed. Â Please people, any information quoted that comes from:
1) Â BP
2) The US Government
has NBIF.
You don’t just accidentally “stumble” onto an oil volcano 5 miles below the surface of the seafloor. Â You don’t cut significant safety corners in the drilling process to “get down there faster” and put your $1-2 Billion investment at risk…not to mention the souls on board. Â You don’t dump 32-46% of your stock holdings weeks in advance of the world’s greatest ecological disaster by coincidence…
Time for everyone to wake up. Â The feed you’re being shown of the BOP is not the gusher that has filled the gulf. Â It is common knowledge that 150,000bpd spill wouldn’t even make it to the coast line.
To put the size of this spill into perspective…
I have a 50,000 gallon pool in my backyard. Â Bigger then most, but nothing too elaborate. Â That pool holds the liquid equivalent of 1300 barrels of oil. Â BP suggested that just under 5 of my 6 foot deep swimming pools was originally leaking into the gulf every day. Â PLEASE!! Â Only a moron would think 5 residential swimming pools/day could even been seen by the human eye at the surface, 1 mile above. Â 50,000 barrels/day is equal to only 40 of my pools. Â Not even a drip in the bucket!!!
Bottom line, EVERYTHING coming forth from the two sources above is total and utter nonsense, and is only offered to delay, distract & deceive. Â There is a far more sinister plan in place, and always has been…Maybe the one I discuss here.:
https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/they-knew-bp-was-trying-to-seal-seafloor-cracks-in-february-white-house-was-warned_06222010#comment-33272
No Nukes = either joking, or sadly suffering from reading too many comic books. I didn’t realize that the Earth’s core was so close, and shit its only 400 degrees, thats low enough to bake a cake or even a pizza. No actually water is routinely pumped into oil reservoirs to maintain production (primarily when there isn’t any associated gas left/present to re-inject into the field) only it makes removing the cut an added chore. So yeah that’s too bad, doesn’t look like we’ll get any 600 ft tidal waves.
Comments…..
The Russian expertise and experience in this area MUST be put in perspective.
They have successfully capped SOME blowouts on SURFACE GAS wells .
They have also had one failure I believe.
Implications????
It is not a simple case of applying that technique to a fractured well head 1 mile below the ocean surface, involving not only gasses but a torrent of crude oil!
I admit that I’m no expert, but some of the experts are saying that the geological stability of the Gulf floor is not conducive to a nuclear explosion.
A cynic might say that not until all the relevant corporations and individuals have milked this disaster for all they can, will anything be seriously implemented to close off the flow.
The population are caught between the Devil and the Deep Blue Oily sea.
If they evacuate by their own choice that will probably void any claim for compensation from BP.
If they wait to be ordered to evacuate, they may become very ill in the meantime and not likely to survive no matter where the Feds. place them.
Now Cuba is gearing up for their turn at dealing with the slick.
They are not a superpower and do not have unlimited resources and $$ to deal with it, so their economy is going to be destroyed as well.
I can’t help but feel ther is a sinister ulterior motive to the whole scenario!
GrannyB: I have read Cayce extensively. Never have I seen anything about an oil spill of any kind. The info from No Nukes about Cayce is false unless he or she can document that prediction from one of the Readings. Cayce NEVER predicted an oil spill.
Cayce did predict that with the Changes from the Pole Shift, the earth changes in North America would be sufficient to create a vast inland sea that would cover much of the upper midwest (i.e. North and South Dakota, parts of Nebraska, Minnesota, Montanta etc) He also claimed that the Mississippi River would be much wider, suggesting that parts of Louisiana and Arkansas and Mississippi and other land areas along the River boundary, would be underwater; widening the divide physically, between the Eastern and Western United States.
Presumably with a Pole Shift and a new tilt of the earth, all land masses will be affected and all major fault lines will be stressed; including the New Madrid Fault Line. But Cayce never predicted a major oil spill or nuke explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Never.
Interested persons should Google the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) the non-profit that owns and promotes Cayce’s work, for accurate information on Cayce’s predictions.
Thanks for the clarification DK. I haven’t read Cayce’s predictions, so don’t have an opinion either way. What my Dad pointed out is that the formations in the Gulf are lined up on an angle, and on paper look like row after row of steep ski slopes. If these slopes are dislodged, perhaps by a nuclear explosion, they will all start sliding. Tsunamis, violent earth movement, and more.
Unfortunately, the effects of the oil and dispersant and other gasses looks like they will be just as catastrophic. Kind of what hopeless feels like!!!
@yourdaddy: I read your previous post on this (https://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/they-knew-bp-was-trying-to-seal-seafloor-cracks-in-february-white-house-was-warned_06222010#comment-33272) where you mention: “…the current CEO of Goldman was the former CEO of BP”
Can you please name the person to which you refer who was CEO of both BP and GS? I found this prospect fascinating so I did some looking and can find no such fact. Thanks.
Not hopeless, Grannyb: “helpful”. Of course it would be better that the Gulf Spill had never happened, but now that it has, much good can come from it.
First, regulators who are supposed to be managing these oil and gas developments are going to have to be more responsible about O&G companies following regulations. Second, well developers are going to have to show financial capability for a “blowout” and maybe some insurance other than “self insurance”. Insurance policies for wells like these could be parcelled out among participating insurers (like commercial mortgages) so that no one insurer had to bear the risk of any particular well; and then “fold their tents” if worse came to worse. Third, new technologies are emerging to “skim” the oil from the water, and soak it up too. One such product I saw demonstrated recently, absorbs the oil like a spong, then releases it in the same way so that all the oil is recovered. Developers of deep water drilling will have to show that these clean up technologies are available in case of an event PRIOR to drilling, so that remediation is immediate. Fourthly, as a species we do need to move away from hydrocarbons to solar, wind, and tidal power and this disaster may speed us toward that future.
If we would as a nation, spend the trillion dollars over the next ten years that Congress has allocated for Obama Care, as matching funds
for homeowners to become energy independent using solar and wind power as best they can; that two trillion dollars would go a long way to diminishing our dependence on foreign oil. Democratize energy as we have democratized information on the Net.
Finally, when the pole shift occurs with the Changes that are coming, many wells will “fail” and there will be many spills and leaks. Catastrophy would be a better word, but if we have some experience like this one to learn from, at BP’s expense I might add, the real disasters at sea that lie ahead might be mitigated somewhat, and that would be a blessing.
Look for the silver lining granny, even it it does not shine the light on the opportunites, it will at least reflect the light.
SJDUDE: I believe he was referring to Peter Sutherland. Instead of “CEO” he may have meant “Chairman” 🙂
Chairman of BP and Chairman of Goldman Sachs International.
This is according to his bio (as of Sep 2009) at : http://www.trilateral.org/membship/bios/ps.htm
More, from Wikipedia, with footnotes:
“He is non-executive Chairman of Goldman Sachs International (a registered UK broker-dealer, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs). He was previously non-executive chairman of BP and was a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group until he was asked to leave the board when it had to be taken over by the UK government to avoid bankruptcy.
He is on the steering committee of the Bilderberg Group [1], a chairman of the Trilateral Commission[2] and vice chairman of the European Round Table of Industrialists.[3]“
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sutherland
Interesting stuff, eh?
Thanks again DK. And you’re right – necessity is the mother of invention, as they say. All of this accountability and innovation for emergency procedures should have been in place already. We, as a people, tend to not take great strides forward until forced to.
I can remember as a kid going to South Padre Island on vacation. There was a large oil spill from a well being drilled off Mexico. Tar balls washed up on shore for several years running, and every time we went to the water we had to clean our feet with alcohol before going back inside. No one seemed to think too much of it at the time. and I don’t recall worries about anyone getting sick. Of course, the quantity washing ashore wasn’t anything close to what is coming ashore now.
Thanks for the view of optimism in an otherwise dismal picture, DK.
Thanks for the clean-up Mac…Sloppy on my part. Â My apologies for the inaccurate title.
But now that this fact has been set straight, might cause a huge, collective : “Hmmmmmmmm.”
Hopefully your blinders have been removed, or at least lowered a tad. Â While Durango Kidd above makes great sense, unfortunately, the entire premise for his position is based on Truthfulness from the parties involved. Â “Regulation, Remediation, Insurance…etc.etc” Â Blah Blah Blah.
When top, world insiders set out to destroy a rig, and create the world’s worst, ecological disaster, no measure of restaint or regulation will stop them. Â While I appreciate & commend DK’s passion, it is somewhat useless in this example. Â No offense. Â Just saying.
Dad
daddy: I agree daddy, and the facts that Mac posted with respect to Peter Sutherland reveal a criminal conspiracy on the sale of BP stock, that for sure needs to be investigated. I do not believe the disaster was deliberate, but once it occured all of the PTB have used it to advance their own agendas.
With respect to the spill itself, I am positive about it because I believe that earth Changes are emminant and all of the wells that will be damaged then, will make the Gulf Disaster look like a grease spot on your garage floor. Thus all that we learn from this scenario is helpful to mitigate future diasters that are surely coming and in aggregate, will be much greater than the BP Gulf spill. That is my concern.
With respect to false flag scenarios I do not believe that the Gulf is one, but again, no disaster should go without such advantage as the PTB can get from it. Neither do I believe that the WTC bombing was a false flag event. I do not believe my government was involved.
Evidence is surfacing that it was indeed planned by Bin Laden and his band of hi-jackers, but the real destruction was executed by the Mossad. Information that I have been reading shows that Israeli intelligence was aware of the Al Kaeda plan and was shadowing all of the hi-jackers and intercepting all of their communications.
I believe that it was the Mossad that planted the thermalite (a very sophisticated nano-quality high explosive that could only be produced by a country with highly sophisticated technology in this area) that brought the towers down and completed the job that Al-Kaeda started.
Once the towers fell, the PTB used it as an excuse to invade and destroy two countries, soon a third, and later a fourth; to pacify them all for the NWO; knowing that it was the Mossad that caused the real damage to the towers.
This is the lie and the conspiracy that Americans feel in their gut because like the Warren Commission, no real legal inquiry was made into the WTC.
An incredibly stupid idea. So what else would you expect from a nuclear engineer? If you had asked a priest he would have said pray! Does that mean prayer will work? When all you have is a hammer all problems look like nails.Â
And to the false flag nutcase; do you really think Bill Clinton and George Bush conspired to fly planes into the WTC??? Can anyone be so stupid? The conspiracy clearly stretched over 2 presidency’s. Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall when Bill handed the baton over to George!!!
I’m pretty sure this is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard… must have come from a republican….
Thank God Dick Cheney is no longer running the show…