[Public_Domain]

[Proculation]

@ShepherdsDog: I've seen it's name. A prominent oil guru.

But hey. It worked for the soviets. Why not 35 years after in the fucking USA ???

[ShepherdsDog]

They use explosives to snuff out oil well fires. A small nuke, detonated at depth, would have minimal impact on the environment.....and it should be delivered by BP executives....by hand

[Public_Domain]

[PublicAnimalNo9]

What's the half life of detonated nuclear material in sea water? I'd hate see them detonate one and a few days or weeks later a hurricane hits the Gulf spreading oil AND radioactivity over the area.

[Thanos]

Mr_Canada Mr_Canada:

Thanos, you are a god among gods. And the avatar works.

Where may I lay my gifts and sacrifices?

The American Psycho avatar has brought out the best in me.

Call me a radical moderate, where centrist doesn't mean coward the way the fringist partisan loons wrongly assume it does. I either love with my whole heart or hate with my whole heart. Good is good, and Evil is evil. There is no in-between in my world, especially an in-between that's used as a hiding place for the greedy, selfish monsters who bring their ruin to the doors of innocents. For this belief I do not apologize.

[Proculation]

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

What's the half life of detonated nuclear material in sea water? I'd hate see them detonate one and a few days or weeks later a hurricane hits the Gulf spreading oil AND radioactivity over the area.

The plan would not be to detonate a nuclear bomb in the sea....

It would be to bring a nuclear mass to a critical state to create a 'semi' chain reaction. It would not create a nuclear explosion and it will be done underground.

It's to melt and crumble the rocks to seal it from the bottom of the well. Like 5 miles under the surface.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Proculation Proculation:

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

What's the half life of detonated nuclear material in sea water? I'd hate see them detonate one and a few days or weeks later a hurricane hits the Gulf spreading oil AND radioactivity over the area.

The plan would not be to detonate a nuclear bomb in the sea....

It would be to bring a nuclear mass to a critical state to create a 'semi' chain reaction. It would not create a nuclear explosion and it will be done underground.

It's to melt and crumble the rocks to seal it from the bottom of the well. Like 5 miles under the surface.

Ok, fair enough. But what are the lasting effects? Like will the sea water be irradiated by this procedure, and if so, how long before it's dispersed to harmless levels?

[Thanos]

Long-term, using a nuke should be less damaging than a continuous oil leak that will last years could ever be. Short-term, both options are fucking awful. Either way, it's going to be no-fishing-no-swimming-allowed for years, if not decades. There is absolutely no win-win possibility left to salvage in this unending tragedy.

The saving grace is that the nuke option would be handled directly by those awful socialist government employees in the United States Navy, i.e. it would be handled professionally, as opposed to the spectacle of BP's ongoing amateur vaudeville routine. This fact alone should be a lot more comfortable than continuing to allow BP executives, who are probably now only motivated by a desperate urge to save what's left of their yearly bonuses, to continue to run the show.

[Proculation]

Well here in Montreal, around my house, it's all smoke.

I just called 911 and it seems it's forest fires. It's very dense. wtf. Is Laval on fire ?

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Thanos Thanos:

Long-term, using a nuke should be less damaging than a continuous oil leak that will last years could ever be. Short-term, both options are fucking awful. Either way, it's going to be no-fishing-no-swimming-allowed for years, if not decades. There is absolutely no win-win possibility left to salvage in this unending tragedy.

The saving grace is that the nuke option would be handled directly by those awful socialist government employees in the United States Navy, i.e. it would be handled professionally, as opposed to the spectacle of BP's ongoing amateur vaudeville routine. This fact alone should be a lot more comfortable than continuing to allow BP executives, who are probably now only motivated by a desperate urge to save what's left of their yearly bonuses, to continue to run the show.

Whee, fun times Thanks for the explanation.

[ShepherdsDog]

Thanos Thanos:

Long-term, using a nuke should be less damaging than a continuous oil leak that will last years could ever be. Short-term, both options are fucking awful. Either way, it's going to be no-fishing-no-swimming-allowed for years, if not decades. There is absolutely no win-win possibility left to salvage in this unending tragedy.

The saving grace is that the nuke option would be handled directly by those awful socialist government employees in the United States Navy, i.e. it would be handled professionally, as opposed to the spectacle of BP's ongoing amateur vaudeville routine. This fact alone should be a lot more comfortable than continuing to allow BP executives, who are probably now only motivated by a desperate urge to save what's left of their yearly bonuses, to continue to run the show.

Actually it would be a very small yield device, likely a fraction of a kiloton(.5 - 1 TJ). The minimal radiation would likely dissipate in weeks or months rather years or decades, seeing as they are suggesting it be detonated at 18 000 ft. The currents within the Gulf would take care of the rest. This wouldn't be anything like a Bikini Atoll detonation, seeing as it would occur under 3 miles of bedrock and ocean. If we want to talk decades, that's how long the clean up is going to take for the toxic damage already done. Sitting around humming and hawing is only going to compound the problem.

[Zipperfish]

Thanos Thanos:

I think that "top kill" should instead mean that they take every BP executive above the rank of office manager and behead each and every one of the motherfuckers in a public square. And televise it, on every network and cable channel too. It would have been far better if BP had been a Japanese company. That way every single one of the assholes in charge would have been forced to commit ritual suicide by now. Which is about the only honorable apology left for any of the malicious cocksuckers who created this ridiculous situtaion in the first place. But they don't have honour. None of them ever did, or ever will. Call it a priviliege of the new ruling class of corporate plutocrats, in that these entirely evil fuckers get to walk between the raindrops while the rest of us, and the pitiful environment, get to bend over and grab our ankles on command like a bunch of cowardly Pavlovian dogs.

The nuclear option is intriguing. The way things go, keeping things like the Bikini Atoll atomic tests in mind, the ocean floor would probably recover faster from a small nuclear blast that permanently seals the well than it will if a 100000 barrels of sludge oil keeps flowing out every day for the rest of forever.

This is totally fucked. I can't figure out why every BP gas station and office in the United States hasn't been burnt to the ground by enraged citizens by now. Have Americans become so docile that this stuff doesn't even bother them anymore? Oh, I forgot. Jesus is coming soon and taking all us goody-goods back to Heaven with him, so it doesn't matter what we do to the planet before we leave (see Reagan Interior Secretary James Watt as an example of, yes, that this demented opinion actually exists). Insanity. Sheer insanity.

When you exalt BP to some apotheosis of Evil, when you focus the combined rage of America at one convenient target, you miss some important lessons, I think. This might well have been any other oil company in the region. The energy companies have simply circumvented a voluminous regulatory regime, like a creek goes around a large boulder that falls in its course. The regulators grew complacent, encouraged by political tide of less government, moving over for industry and "Drill Baby Drill."

The regulatory regime already in place was expensive and created the illusion of comptetence. But it was just a paper tiger; the industry paid their dues with massive required reports, and the Minierals Management Service handed out "categorical exclusions" like candy. The taxpayer was paying a lot for this regualtory regime, but was not getting much in return.

And at the bottom of all of this are the abiding myths that North Americans have about energy--"energy independence"; the "Dances with Wolves" mentality that, without oil, we would all frolic happily in the meadows; the denial of the essentiality of oil for our prosperity. The pablum fed the American people by left and right wing demagogues just adds to the general ignorance of the issue. At the end of the day, everyone hates energy companies and the government a little more, pats himself on the back, and goes nack to living in his dreamworld.

This accident was very forseeable. In the business it's known as a "low-probability, high-consequence" event. Repeat a given experiment (drilling) enough times and eventually you will get your low-probability event. The wheel happened to stop at BP, but it might just as well have been Exxon or Shell.

[Brenda]

Where's Red Adair when you need him? (RIP, man...)

[Alta_redneck]

Brenda Brenda:

Where's Red Adair when you need him? (RIP, man...)

Screw Red Adair, Safety Boss from Red Deer embarrassed him in Kuwait.