Should BP Nuke its Leaking Well?

An ex BP oil engineer (who I know) used the following words when I asked him about it:<p><i>dear god no, it would be horrific</i><p>His opinion is that the geology in the region would not take a massive explosion well and the most likely result (he admits it <i>could</i> plug/slow the well) would be a large number of cracks/channels deep underground that would seep up through the sea floor and be pretty much unstoppable.

<i>"I don't know what BP is waiting for, they are wasting their time."</i><p>I don't think it is really up to BP whether or not to set off a nuclear bomb in the Gulf of Mexico, even if they happened to have one in their repertoire.

The short answer: no. The slightly longer answer: no, they can't, only the US government could do that and nobody is going to sign off on the risks associated with possible side effects of doing this.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaceful_nuclear_explosions" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaceful_nuclear_explosions</a><p>What could possibly go wrong ?

No, but I'm strongly in favor of a plan to nuke the moon. That thing's been looking at me the wrong way for years now.

[comic store guy] Worst. Idea. Ever. [/comic store guy]

&#62;<i></i>Prof Ershaghi says:<i></i> "A nuclear blast would not fuse the pipe under the cooling effect of water but rather would create a crater and would make it impossible to control the flow."<p><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10268979.stm" rel="nofollow">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10268979.stm</a>.

<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dk-matai/gulf-of-mexico-danger-of_b_619095.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dk-matai/gulf-of-mexico-danger...</a><p>That this is even a remote possibility suggests that, no, big explosions should not be used. 1 in 10^9 is still too risky.

tl;dr: Some cigar-smoking fat cat with a history in the nuclear industry, as well as assuredly well-read bloggers, consider the nuke the ultimate solution to a very thorny problem.

BP are so incompetent that they can not even control a robot without hitting something, nor place a cap over the leak, nor even accurately estimate how much oil is leaking.<p>Giving them a nuclear weapon is not a good idea.

Why am I not surprised a Russian is proposing a nuclear solution? I swear, Russia and nuclear goes together like peanut butter and jelly.

I think its amazing how with all the Ivy League Scientists that have been thrown at this leak, none have managed to effect a brilliant solution to this problem that can actually work. Maybe we need to rethink exactly what qualifies someone as smart in this world. They had Bill Nye, James, Cameron, and even Kevin Costner there. LOL. Despite the enormous pool of intelligence that now collects BP checks for failing to "solve" this problem, only the most basic juvenile and idiotic suggestions emerge, like Nuking the drill site. Wow. Megafailure.