Next step to stop oil: Throw garbage at it

  • Thread starter Delirious
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Delirious

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Well instead of me posting about a conspiracy terrorist attack concerning this oil spill...now I have a crappier post toward this.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/09/gulf.oil/index.html?hpt=T1
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: BP officials considering "junk shot" to try to clog blowout container with debris
Crystals accumulated inside containment dome, rendering it ineffective
Dome moved to side of wellhead while crews work to overcome the challenge, BP CEO says
Placing dome over well 5,000 feet underwater had never been tried at such a depth


Venice, Louisiana (CNN) -- If using a massive dome to cover the source of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico doesn't work, crews are preparing for another option: clogging it.
Engineers are examining whether they can close a failed blowout preventer by stuffing it with trash, said Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard. The 48-foot-tall, 450-ton device sits atop the well at the heart of the Gulf oil spill and is designed to stop leaks, but it has not been working properly since the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and later sank.
"The next tactic is going to be something they call a junk shot," Allen told CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "They'll take a bunch of debris -- shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that -- and under very high pressure, shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up and stop the leak."
Oil company BP, the well's owner, had attempted to lower a four-story containment vessel over the well to cap the larger of the well's two leak points. But that plan was thwarted Saturday after ice-like hydrate crystals, formed when gas combined with water, blocked the top of the dome and made it buoyant.
BP said it has not abandoned the dome plan. But Doug Suttles, the company's chief operating officer, told reporters that officials are considering the "junk shot" along with other possible solutions.
Suttles said Saturday that trying to stuff shut the blowout preventer had not yet been attempted because of possible challenges and risks. And Allen said the approach had worked in the past, but never so deep beneath the water's surface.
"We're working at 5,000 feet of depth, which has never been done before," he said.
The dome was resting on the seabed Sunday while crews tried to find a way to deal with the crystals -- a process that could take two days, Suttles told reporters Saturday.
Officials are considering heating the dome or adding methanol to dissolve the hydrates, he said. If the hydrate problem is resolved, BP hopes to connect the dome to a drill ship and to begin sucking oil from the containment dome.

In the meantime, an estimated 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) of crude is pouring from the well every day. Hundreds of thousands of feet of boom and large volumes of dispersants continued to be deployed in an effort to capture or break up the spilled oil moving toward the Gulf coastline, and thousands of workers and volunteers diligently worked to skim the water's surface.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters warned that the Mississippi Delta, Breton Sound, the Chandeleur Islands and areas directly north could see oil hit the coast by Tuesday, and significant winds could push oil west of the Mississippi Delta by Monday. And scientists are analyzing tar balls found on a beach on Dauphin Island, Alabama, to determine whether they were caused by the oil spill, and Coast Guard spokesman Erik Swanson said.
The tar balls are "pieces of emulsified oil" shaped like pancakes, ranging in size from dimes to golf balls, but can sometimes occur naturally, Swanson said.
The stakes are high for residents of coastal Louisiana who make their living by fishing in the Gulf. Oil washed ashore Thursday on Louisiana's barrier islands and drifted west past the mouth of the Mississippi River.
"It's killing everybody down here, everybody is more or less getting ulcers worrying about this, and it's something we experienced five years ago with [Hurricane] Katrina," charter-boat owner Tom Becker told CNN Saturday.
Federal investigators are still trying determining what caused the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon, owned by BP contractor Transocean Ltd. The explosion left 11 men presumed dead aboard the rig and caused the massive underwater gusher that the company and the federal government have been trying to cap since late April.
Suttles said Saturday that senior BP employees, including the company's vice president for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, were on board the rig at the time of the explosion discussing its positive safety performance.
"This rig had an outstanding record," he said.
All six BP employees on board were among the 111 people who escaped from the burning rig, Suttles said.
BP is legally required to cover economic damages from the spill up to $75 million. But Florida Sen. Bill Nelson has introduced legislation that would raise the liability cap to $10 billion.
"If this gusher continues for several months, it's going to cover up the Gulf Coast and it's going to get down into the loop current and that's going to take it down the Florida Keys and up the east coast of Florida, and you are talking about massive economic loss to our tourism, our beaches, to our fisheries, very possibly disruption of our military testing and training," Nelson said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

Maybe this will be a new but useful dump to get rid of our garbage! 💡
 
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Are they going to be broadcasting this on ESPN?

"World Series of Garbage Shooting Presented by Shell, Live in the Gulf of Mexico"
 
...the theory being that the oil won't feel so pressured into polluting if there's 300 tonnes of garbage floating around too?

Personally I'm surprised nobody's thrown a Prius at it yet - I assume they're the natural antidote to such a catastrophe.
 
And now we have oil rain, brought to us by the idiots that thought it was a good idea to spray dispersants everywhere:

 
I guess they didn't think that the oil would then evaporate with the water, just like how it evaporates when I spray brake clean on my garage floor to clean up after an oil change.
 
While you're throwing Tony Hayward into the hole, can I throw in any existing copies of films made by creationist propagandist Ben Stein?
 
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So, we have 3D TV's, car's that can drive themselves, phones that can pretty much do anything. Yet, we can't figure out how to clog a pipe.:dunce::nervous:
 
While you're throwing Tony Hayward into the hole, can I throw in any existing copies of films made by creationist propagandist Bob Stein?

Who's Bob Stein? Do you mean Ben Stein?

@Justin- I know, I mean how hard could it be?
 
I think people don't grasp just how much power the oil gushing out of the pipe has. Nor do people understand the difficulties in fixing something a mile under the water.
 
I think people don't grasp just how much power the oil gushing out of the pipe has. Nor do people understand the difficulties in fixing something a mile under the water.

Well, if they can't fix it a mile underwater, they shouldn't have built it a mile under water. I get that it's not exactly easy, but they obviously had the necessary tools to build it in the first place so they should be able to fix it.
 
Well, if they can't fix it a mile underwater, they shouldn't have built it a mile under water. I get that it's not exactly easy, but they obviously had the necessary tools to build it in the first place so they should be able to fix it.

Picture trying to fix a leaking pipe in your house without being able to turn the water off, that's akin to what the spill is. I really hope it can be fixed ASAP, but it seems like it will be a while :scared:
 
Well, if they can't fix it a mile underwater, they shouldn't have built it a mile under water. I get that it's not exactly easy, but they obviously had the necessary tools to build it in the first place so they should be able to fix it.

Yeah, and that's exactly the problem with the ecomentalists and their influence of government. I don't understand why they ban close-to-shore drilling when all of these crusty uglyass tankers drop anchor in clear sight off the nice beaches. There was actually some guy on campus outside the library who worked for some dumb eco-florida political action group that I wanted me to sign some thing to save the beaches. I don't know if I convinced him to leave the group, but he did agree that I was right when I actually talked to him about near-shore drilling. I bet he never heard someone speak back to him before. :lol:
 
"...shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that -- and under very high pressure..."

:dopey: basically things that tends to float instead of sink.... great .... :nervous:


...the theory being that the oil won't feel so pressured into polluting if there's 300 tonnes of garbage floating around too?

Personally I'm surprised nobody's thrown a Prius at it yet - I assume they're the natural antidote to such a catastrophe.

:lol: i am not sure a Prius would do... latest word has got that Lexus is recalling the HS250h (the other more luxurious derivative of the Prius) because of the risk of excessive fuel leakage...
:scared: I dont think we want to make the situation worse...



So, we have 3D TV's, car's that can drive themselves, phones that can pretty much do anything. Yet, we can't figure out how to clog a pipe.:dunce::nervous:

Easy answer, that no one has thought about: Women! 👍 👍



and by that, i mean women's hair... they can clog just about anything ! :sly:


@Justin- I know, I mean how hard could it be?

A mile under water really really hard,darn near impossible.

I think people don't grasp just how much power the oil gushing out of the pipe has. Nor do people understand the difficulties in fixing something a mile under the water.

For those catholic and religious among us, let us pray and talk to GOD about this, maybe Moses can make a come back and part the sea for us. GOD's kingdom is at risk here... He should do something...

medium_moses.jpg
moses.jpg




....


But hopefully the solution and our savior will be this guy... The hero of the 21th Century

waterworld.jpg
 
well, if they can't fix it a mile underwater, they shouldn't have built it a mile under water. I get that it's not exactly easy, but they obviously had the necessary tools to build it in the first place so they should be able to fix it.

yup
 
An answer was sent to me in an e-mail about this :

If you put a wedding ring on it , it will quit putting out. :lol::lol::lol:
 
http://www.helium.com/items/1889648-bp-preparing-super-weapon-to-avert-escalating-gulf-nightmare

"A device that can only be used once, the EPFCG generates a high power electromagnetic pulse. It achieves this by using a powerful explosive, preferably nuclear. Advanced, nuclear driven EPFCGs can instantaneously create up to billions of amperes and hundreds of terawatts. Such raw power exceeds lighting bolts by huge orders of magnitude.
...
According to engineers familiar with the technology, the devices can generate plasma arcs hotter than the surface of the sun that will melt and fuse materials in nanoseconds."


Although this story doesn't ring true to me, there may be some amusement value in considering it. Shades of Atlantis!!
 
First off, where is this guy when you need him?

macgyver.jpg


And considering the article that Dotini posted... Wouldn't such a high temperature plasma arc cause a huge amount of water to evaporate? And considering the speed at which that would happen, wouldn't it cause something like a huge explosion, so to speak? :scared:

Sounds pretty crazy... If it's true, that is.
 
http://www.helium.com/items/1889648-bp-preparing-super-weapon-to-avert-escalating-gulf-nightmare

"A device that can only be used once, the EPFCG generates a high power electromagnetic pulse. It achieves this by using a powerful explosive, preferably nuclear. Advanced, nuclear driven EPFCGs can instantaneously create up to billions of amperes and hundreds of terawatts. Such raw power exceeds lighting bolts by huge orders of magnitude.
...
According to engineers familiar with the technology, the devices can generate plasma arcs hotter than the surface of the sun that will melt and fuse materials in nanoseconds."


Although this story doesn't ring true to me, there may be some amusement value in considering it. Shades of Atlantis!!

"Let's see, how about we prevent this current this current ecological catastrophe? Hmm, we will just remote detonate a thermonuclear devise at the source of the problem."

"...But won't that cause an even bigger ecological disaster?"

"We will cross that bridge when we reach it"

-----

Aside from the fallout aspect, a powerful electromagnetic pulse could also cause a serious amount of damage to electrical equipment within a large radius, which isn't good news for Floridians. This is assuming such a pulse is still prominent from the depths of the ocean.

There are places which can generate relatively large electromagnetic pulses without the nuclear blast, shipping one to a mile below the surface of the gulf though... and that's even assuming the machines could focus such pulses into usable arks, which as far as I am aware, they can't.

Thanks for the article though, it was as you say 'amusing to consider' and I do love a bit of sci-fi.
 
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http://www.helium.com/items/1889648-bp-preparing-super-weapon-to-avert-escalating-gulf-nightmare

"A device that can only be used once, the EPFCG generates a high power electromagnetic pulse. It achieves this by using a powerful explosive, preferably nuclear. Advanced, nuclear driven EPFCGs can instantaneously create up to billions of amperes and hundreds of terawatts. Such raw power exceeds lighting bolts by huge orders of magnitude.
...
According to engineers familiar with the technology, the devices can generate plasma arcs hotter than the surface of the sun that will melt and fuse materials in nanoseconds."


Although this story doesn't ring true to me, there may be some amusement value in considering it. Shades of Atlantis!!

They've been tossing around the idea of a controlled nuclear explosion for over a month now.

Honestly, while all of you seem to think this problem is not this complicated or severe, it is.

And I'll pistol whip the next person that asks "how hard can it be to plug a hole?"
 
Not hard my boys, not hard...

simply take a Small Fry, then dip it in ... :
spoiler: just hightlight the text:
.... Ketchup...



or how about i start telling you about the Flowers and the Bees....?
 
Well, if they can't fix it a mile underwater, they shouldn't have built it a mile under water. I get that it's not exactly easy, but they obviously had the necessary tools to build it in the first place so they should be able to fix it.
Exactly. 👍
 
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