Plan to cap Gulf of Mexico oil leak with dome delayed

[flamingdem]

Source: BBC

A new attempt by BP to control the main leak at the Gulf of Mexico oil well disaster site with a steel dome has been put back by a "few days".

Earlier, the British oil giant said it hoped the "top hat", which is now on the seabed, would be deployed by Thursday at the broken pipeline.

An attempt to use a larger containment dome failed on Sunday when it became clogged with ice and gas.
The well is spewing out some 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of oil a day.

The "top hat" is meant to siphon oil into container ships but there is no guarantee that the plan will work, the BBC's Andy Gallacher reports.

The first of two relief wells being drilled is not expected to be ready for some three months.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8680460.stm

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We are screwed. My apologies to Mother Earth.

[Bryn]

1. Why don't they just pull out that pipe and seal that hole?

BP, give it up! Don't siphon oil into ships .. let it go!

[boppers]

4. How?

You have a massive amount of high pressure, volatile, buoyant liquid and gas shooting out of a hole in the ground, far under the sea, how do you seal it? The 125 ton (yes, 125 tons) cap they attempted to put on didn't work, it just floated up and off.

edit:typo

[Bryn]

13. Just wishful thinking

I know it's not so simple. I should have added sarcasm smiley in that post. I am getting so impatient seeing that horrible gushing ...

[Codeine]

5. Sealing a hole gushing oil at 100,000PSI

is not so easy as you'd like to believe. People keep thinking the delay has to do with oil salvage, which is ridiculous. Its just a nigh-unpluggable hole.

[Ex Lurker]

7. the pipe is the only thing that keeps it from gushing even faster

I've heard it compared to a mini volcano.

[flamingdem]

8. And they must be careful with sand abrasion and their devices that it doesn't blow.. nt

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. 'Gulf of Mexico oil leak'

Gulf of Mexico didn't leak a damn thing, BP did, and it's not a 'leak' it's a gusher.
BBC is normally better with their titles


What horrible news

[lovely]

3. keeping my fingers crossed

[paradlddle]

6. Plan to cap

Just nuke it that's what the Russians did. :sarcasm:

[iamtechus]

9. Probably not a bad idea

But too politically scary for our elected wimps.

Something that might also work would be to drill a 100 ft deep hole adjacent to the oil pipe and insert high explosive charge,
then set it off collapsing the oil pipe/hole far below ground.

[boppers]

10. Earlier thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8297500

[Javaman]

11. Why don't they use something like this?

(Queue the Death Star music. Yes, this is very real)



http://www.brookings.edu/projects/archive/nucweapons/runit.aspx

Beneath this concrete dome on Runit Island (part of Enewetak Atoll), built between 1977 and 1980 at a cost of about $239 million, lie 111,000 cubic yards (84,927 cubic meters) or radioactive soil and debris from Bikini and Rongelap atolls. The dome covers the 30-foot (9 meter) deep, 350-foot (107 meter) wide crated created by the May 5, 1958, Cactus test. Note the people atop the dome.

[boppers]

14. Interestingly enough, a nuke detonation has been suggested.

When a nuclear explosion to seal the geyser is suggested as a "less damaging option" is when we know we have a serious problem. :(

[Javaman]

16. no shit. nt

[Owl]

12. Why don't they just admit they don't know what the hell they are doing?!

Call in all the best and brightest physicists and scientists now!!!!!!!

[boppers]

15. One word: Tampax.

A friend of mine suggested this on facebook: use a porous, absorbent, material that expands and secures itself *because* of the pressure.

The "applicator" would likely have to be a few hundred feet or more, to wedge against bedrock, and once the sleeve was pulled, it would balloon up and use the pressure to press against the walls.

[CHIMO]

17. Of Course

Let them put forward the technical basis showing that it would work.

They are playing people. It is just a delaying tactic until they have the second well done.