Why would it have to be nuke? Wouldn’t a line of conventional high explosives in a bore close to the well be enough to crush the well casing?
The hope, I believe, is that the nuke burns off, or vaporizes much of the oil that has already escaped. Makes sense to me.
It is not like nukes have not been used in the ocean or over the ocean. We, Russia, France.. all have tested nukes over or in the ocean. One Russia used was 100 megatons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxD44HO8dNQ&NR=1 done over the Sakhalin islands.
Here is a hydrogen nuke France tests over a pacific atoll http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln9mhlJ-yCo.
So it has been done over water. Of course we tested on Bikini atoll.
You have asked an important question.
If it was a surface well ....yes.
Me thinks this nuke option is NOT gong to happen...