In this case, what would a nuke do that conventional explosives could not?
I love the last sentence by the BP spokesperson.
Engineers trying multiple tactics in battle to plug oil well in Gulf of Mexico
by Joel Achenbach and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Engineers will use golf balls and shredded automobile tires in what they call a "junk shot" to try to clog the oil well that has been leaking crude at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico since the sinking last month of the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon.
"We'll be pumping pieces of tire. We'll be pumping knots in ropes," Kent Wells, senior vice president of exploration and production for BP, said in a news briefing Monday. "There's a little bit of a science in this, even though it sounds odd."
The war in the gulf since the blowout April 20 has tested the ingenuity and improvisational skills of petroleum engineers who have never tried to cap a well in mile-deep water. They're hoping for victory but hedging their bets.
"We are designing every option to be successful, and we are planning for it failing," Wells said.
