My solution to contain the spill

[CreatureFeature]

I think that they should consider dropping a large concrete containment vessel shaped like a bell over the well. The vessel should have a tube attached so that the oil can be pumped to the surface.

Has anyone heard this suggestion? Does anyone have the ability to forward it to someone who might be able to present it to the authorities?

[Orrex]

1. I say that we stuff the hole full of BP executives.

[Xipe Totec]

3. Much more practical and doable

[liberalla]

7. I'm with you - let's not waste the concrete

[The Magistrate]

2. It Would Need, Sir, To Weigh An Awfully Lot....

Creating a concrete structure the necessary size would not be quickly or easily achieved. Transporting it would be, shall we say, interesting....

[Xipe Totec]

4. Ultimately, what they will do is bore a parallel hole

and detonate a charge next to the well to collapse the hole and stop the flow.

That will take about 90 days, in which time more oil will be spilled than there ever was from the Exxon Valdez.

[The Magistrate]

10. That Sounds About Right, Sir

Is there any sign of the necessary equipment moving into place? News coverage seems a bit out of focus....

[Warpy]

20. Yes, a rig is on its way

but this is a terrible accident and I'm afraid there are no quick or easy fixes.

People who live near the Gulf have my sympathy.

[TheMadMonk]

22. But creating concrete structures of this size is achievable. As is moving them...

...about in the ocean.

A smart move, if people are to undertake deep ocean offshore drilling is to have one or more such emergency response caps ready to hand to plug a leak.

The simplest could be a whacking great block of concrete and flotation baloons.

Anonther smart move would be to always drill inside a massive steel cassion. Which would make "drop a rock on it" plugging that much easier.


We are always going to have an appetite for petrochemicals, even if we do manage to kick the fossil fuel habit. We still need to figure out how to recover the stuff safely.

That, that appetite will always exist should on its own be a good enough reason to stop putting a match to it.

[Xipe Totec]

23. Sounds like you are trying to re-invent blowout preventers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowout_preventer

[Mz Pip]

5. Sarah

can suck it dry. :sarcasm:

[liberalla]

8. - dupe -

delete

[liberalla]

9. that's another good suggestion!

:thumbsup:

[wordpix]

13. excellent!

[kiers]

6. finally an excellent explanation of how they drill here:

http://www.pe.tamu.edu/schubert/public_html/Pemex%20Offshore%20Drilling/

and here:

http://www.pe.tamu.edu/schubert/public_html/Blowout/

NOTE: STILL NO ELUCIDATION FROM OUR NATIONAL MSM ON A NATIONAL ISSUE.

IMAGINE HOW THEY COVER FOREIGN NEWS?!!!!!

[gmoney]

11. how about just bending the pipe?

like bending a drinking straw... should at least slow it down. shouldn't take 90 days.

[applegrove]

14. I think I heard somewhere that it was already bent and at the bend was where some oil was leaking.

[itsrobert]

12. bomb the hell out of it

that should work

[havocmom]

15. you jest

surely you jest

[Divine Discontent]

16. I say that just might work! drop a few major bombs down there...

either it will seal it up with other floor, or it will send it all to the surface! ha... anyhow, I'm sure they're thinking of everything. well, I hope they are...

[Emit]

17. Yes, on BBC news today, they mentioned something like that

~snip~

The next course of action is to lower a giant "dome" over the site to funnel the oil to the surface and dispose of it there.

BP, which owns the well, is already building the structure but it will take several weeks to construct and has not been tried at such depths before.

~snip~

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8651333.stm

[CreatureFeature]

19. I knew that I couldn't be the only one thinking of that approach

[lonestarnot]

18. Problem is volcanoes can't be capped can they? So much pressure nearly 1 mi. down that it's like

volcanoe pressure. That would be one motherfucker of a cap, take months to make.

[unkachuck]

21. sounds good to me....

....I think they might be welding up containment towers to do as you suggest....

....I'm not an automotive engineer, but if I were to design a dangerous high-speed sports car I'd first start with the brakes....before you make something go, you should first figure out how to make it stop....