From Slashdot:
Oil Leak Could Be Stopped With a Nuke
“The oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico could be stopped with an underground nuclear blast, a Russian newspaper reports. 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.’ It’s so simple, in fact, that the Soviet Union used this method five times to deal with petrocalamities, and it only didn’t work once.”
Sounds like a great idea, after all – what could possibly go wrong? That was sarcasm, by the way. But the situation is beyond desperate. After the containment dome failed the oil is still flowing:
Gulf oil keeps on flowing
Today marks the three-week anniversary of the oil-rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil continues to spill into the ocean, at the rate of about 33,000 litres per hour. Marine damage mounts. Beaches and coastal environments are threatened with devastation. …
Companies involved in the offshore industry maintained this kind of disaster couldn’t happen. If something did go wrong, they insisted, backup safety plans would allow a quick, effective response. But the disaster did happen. And three weeks later, there has been no effective action.
This is a “potentially unprecedented” environmental disaster. The various oil companies involved in the incident are falling out trying to blame each other, and BP stock has fallen by billions of dollars. Wouldn’t have been cheaper to have had adequate safety measures in place instead of this mess? What a complete cockup all round. Enough of the high risk extraction of difficult reserves. Peak oil is here. Time to start planning for the post oil future.
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