I was chatting with an old college chum who Started his career working on Oil rigs... [View All]

the subject turned to the Oil "spill" in the Gulf. he was incensed as the Leak continues unabated. He pointed out to me that when an Oil well catches fire on the surface we use explosives to put it out. (concussion cutting off oxygen to the fire and thus easy to cap.)Or if the flow of the Oil is too great to cap. use another explosion to collapse the well hole.

This could be done in the gulf.

He pointed out to me that all the "attempts" so far to "stop" the leak are about reclaiming the oil and keeping the well usable... not really about actually stopping the flow of OIL. (the environment be dammed)

clearly if the idea were to stop the blowout and saving the gulf coasts then a detonation next to the hole would collapse the well and stop the flow would have been attempted by now.

yet all current attempts being done are aimed at preserving the well for future use. NOT aimed at quickly stopping the flow of Oil into the gulf immediately.

granted the Idea of detonating the well comes with its own risks. (fire is not one of them at depth) like not doing it correctly and increasing the flow. As my friend pointed out, at the depth of the water the explosion would be concentrated towards collapsing the well and thus sealing off the well.
in his words "the pressures at depth should actually make detonating the well head and collapsing the hole easier than at the surface." as well as "the Russians suggested doing this like they themselves have done with small nukes in similar situations"

Now we do not need to use Nukes to produce a blast large enough. But the Idea is not that far fetched.

of course the well would be rendered useless and unable to be exploited in the future. But the damage to the gulf ecosystem would be kept to the damage already done.

Yes this seems harebrained, we had only two beers apiece by the time we discussed this issue. And It makes total sense to me even now that I am sober.