Energy expert: Nuking oil leak ‘only thing we can do’

Oh, man! No! This is the worst shortsighted ridiculous unimaginative idiotic bad idea I've ever heard. "Hey, we're too stupid to fix this--let's just blow it up." BP must be destroyed--its executive board and officers must be arrested and its assets given to its full-time hourly employees to redistribute its wealth. BP should no longer exist to destroy this planet further.

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BP 'totally in charge of the news' about oil leak, energy expert says
By Daniel Tencer
Saturday, May 29th, 2010

As the latest effort to plug the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico meets with failure, the idea of nuking the immediate area to seal the oil underground is gaining steam among some energy experts and researchers.

One prominent energy expert known for predicting the oil price spike of 2008 says sending a small nuclear bomb down the leaking well is "probably the only thing we can do" to stop the leak.

Matt Simmons, founder of energy investment bank Simmons & Company, also says that there is evidence of a second oil leak about five to seven miles from the initial leak that BP has focused on fixing. That second leak, he says, is so large that the initial one is "minor" in comparison.

Simmons spoke to Bloomberg News on Friday, before BP announced that its latest effort to plug the leak, known as the "top kill" method, had failed.

"A week ago Sunday the first research vessel ... was commissioned by NOAA to scour the area," he said. They found "a gigantic plume" growing about five to seven miles from the site of the original leak, Simmons said.

Simmons said the US government should immediately take the effort to plug the leak out of the hands of BP and put the military in charge.

"Probably the only thing we can do is create a weapons system and send it down 18,000 feet and detonate it, hopefully encasing the oil," he said.

His idea echoes that of a Russian newspaper that earlier this month suggested the US detonate a small nuclear bomb to seal the oil beneath the sea. Komsomoloskaya Pravda argued in an editorial that Russia had successfully used nuclear weapons to seal oil spills on five occasions in the past.

Live Science reports:

Weapons labs in the former Soviet Union developed special nukes for use to help pinch off the gas wells. They believed that the force from a nuclear explosion could squeeze shut any hole within 82 to 164 feet (25 to 50 meters), depending on the explosion's power. That required drilling holes to place the nuclear device close to the target wells.
A first test in the fall of 1966 proved successful in sealing up an underground gas well in southern Uzbekistan, and so the Russians used nukes four more times for capping runaway wells.

Simmons also told Bloomberg that the idea to use radical measures like a nuclear bomb to seal the leak is probably not being contemplated by decision-makers "because BP is still totally in charge of the news and they have everyone focused on the top kill."

Asked by a Bloomberg reporter about the risks involved in setting off a nuclear bomb off the coast of Louisiana, Simmons argued that a nuclear explosion deep inside a well bore would have little effect on surrounding areas.

"If you're 18,000 feet under the sea bed, it basically wont do anything [on the surface]," he said.

Joe Wiesenthal at Business Insider says the idea of using nukes will be getting a lot of attention now that the "top kill" procedure has failed.

Next, the so-called "nuclear option" is about to get a lot of attention. In this case, of course, nuclear option is not a euphemism. It's the real idea that the best way to kill this thing is to stick a small nuke in there and bury the well under rubble. ... By the middle of the coming week, it will be all over cable news, as pundits press The White House hard on whether it's being considered and why not.

‘Top kill’ has failed, BP admits

By Raw Story
Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Oil giant BP admitted on Saturday that its fourth attempt to stop the oil leak at the Deepwater Horizon -- known as "top kill" -- has failed.

"I don't think the amount of oil coming out has changed," BP's chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, told reporters. "Just by watching it, we don't believe it's changed."

According to government estimates, between 18 million and 40 million gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf of Mexico since the rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 workers.

Writing at Business Insider, finance reporter Joe Wiesenthal says BO will likely be "taken off the job" on the oil spill, because of the bad publicity the failed efforts at stopping the leak have given the Obama administration:

Having BP run the show has been a disaster for a couple of reasons. One is that Obama has to defend the company's actions, and two is that BP is HORRIBLE at PR, waiting hours to give updates that everyone is clamoring for. Watch for the military to take over, though using BP's resources and of course BP's dime.

Engineers tried Saturday to plug an oil gush spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico after US President Barack Obama visited the disaster area and vowed never to abandon those imperiled by it.

As BP pleaded for patience to allow time for its risky and complex "top kill" to work and plug the massive leak, Obama pledged "to continue to do whatever it takes to help Americans whose livelihoods have been upended by the spill."

The US president, clad in hiking boots and with his sleeves rolled up, ordered the number of workers feverishly trying to contain and clean up the spill along the southern US coastline to be tripled.

He toured an oil-slick blighted Louisiana beach, picking up tar balls to examine them, as he outlined his administration's "historic response" to the disaster which has spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

His second trip to the region since an April 20 explosion tore through the Deepwater Horizon rig, 80 kilometers ( 50 miles) off shore, came as experts and residents hold their breath, hoping BP can stop the oil flowing from a fractured pipe.

Government scientists estimate some 12,000 to 19,000 barrels of crude a day have been gushing into the Gulf since the rig sank two days after the blast which killed 11 workers.

"I think the key element here is to exercise patience," said BP's chief operating officer Doug Suttles, adding the operation would last another 24 to 48 hours.

The British energy giant is using robotic submarines to pump heavy drilling fluids down the wellhead, hoping to drown the leak long enough to allow engineers to then seal it with cement.

"We'll have periods where we're pumping. We'll have periods where we're monitoring results of that pumping. We'll have periods where we actually pump in this, what we call junk," Suttles said, seeking to allay concerns over why BP had stopped the pumping several times since it began on Wednesday.

The New York Times said Saturday the operation was marked by "an apparent lack of progress," pointing out that officials said they would continue with the process for another 48 hours before giving up and considering other options, including another containment dome to try to capture the oil.

The disaster has already closed stretches of coastal fishing waters, endangering livelihoods which are also dependent on tourism, and threatening a catastrophe for Louisiana marshes, home to many rare species.

"I'm here to tell you that you're not alone. You will not be abandoned. You will not be left behind," Obama promised to local residents. "We are on your side and we will see this through."

He said 20,000 people had already been deployed to contain and clean up the spill, but that he had ordered Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and US Coast Guard chief Admiral Thad Allen to "triple the manpower in places where oil has hit the shore or is within 24 hours of impact."

Allen, who has been charged with overseeing the government's response, said initial signs suggested BP's "top kill" was succeeding.

"They have been able to push the hydrocarbons down with the mud. The real challenge is to put enough into the well to keep the pressure where they can put a cement plug over the top," he said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Government data released Thursday would mean between 18.6 million gallons and 29.5 million gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf -- far more than the roughly 11 million gallons of crude spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

Amid the environmental catastrophe, there were also growing fears for the health of cleanup workers exposed to the oil and chemical dispersants.

Four more crewmen aboard ships helping burn off surface oil were evacuated to hospital late Friday after falling ill, a day after the US Coast Guard announced that seven workers were evacuated for medical emergencies.

Obama said 910,000 meters (three million feet) of hard boom had already been deployed in an effort to stop the oil spill reaching wetlands and beaches. But he admitted "there's a limited amount" available.

"We're going to try to get more boom manufactured, but that may take some time," he said.

The commander of a federal research ship who has spent five days out at sea on the edges of the slick said a heavy smell of oil hung over the area.

"It's a strong smell out there," said commander Shepard Smith of the Thomas Jefferson, a 204-foot survey vessel. "It smells like freshly creosoted railroad ties."

BP said Friday the oil spill had cost the firm about 930 million dollars, while the company's market value has also dropped by billions.