Posted on 05/29/2010 1:13:23 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
AP news break via ABC News Radio that the top kill plug has failed and has not worked. Link to follow...
Yep, my dad and I were both in the offshore platform design/build business Petro-Marine Engineering in Houston. Way too much pressure coming out of the riser to just try to plug. It will take true brilliance on the part of someone to stop that gusher.
Uh oh...ZERO has an epic failure on his hands. After all he made it VERY CLEAR that HIS ADMINISTRATION was telling BP what to do.
Oh yeah, does zero taking full responsibility for stopping the gusher mean he has let BP off the hook legally and put the American taxpayer in it’s place.
Don’t cap it .. capture it
...because I have idea about this stuff, can you explain to me why they are not ‘sucking’ the stuff out, or rerouting and containing the oil into a tanker?
Remember those first reports that top kill had worked. They were circulated just prior to Obama’s visit. More agitprop from the WH.
And the second messenger did sound, and as it were a great mountain with fire burning was cast into the sea, and the third of the sea became blood, Rev. 8:8
Boy, I can think of an appropriate place to place those.
Actually I think they are going to Indonesia...remember where Barry Soredo grew up?
The Indonesia trip was posponed due to the Obamacare disaster...
Yea, I’m thinking.
I’ve seen diagrams of, and talked to fellow engineers who used to do consulting work on what are called “effects test” of nukes in Nevada. The vertical column tests (ie, similar to what you’re talking about) were “yield tests,” and much smaller devices (down in the single kiloton range) were put into horizontal shafts with all manner of instrumentation to measure what the nuke reaction put off. Very small nukes, just as you’re preaching, were what were used in effects tests.
Yes, we have them. Or, perhaps more accurately, we *had* them.
One of the things that a lot of people aren’t wise to is that nuke weapons decay with time, and without regular regeneration and refresh, you might have a low, dirty yield, or a “fizzle” - an incomplete critical reaction, depending on the level of decay. There are components of a nuke which decay over time, which you then have to remove and refresh in order to keep the reaction from choking itself with decay by-products.
But let’s put that part of it aside for a sec, and think of just the paperwork side of this.
So you want a bomb this small (which is much smaller than a conventional strategic weapon, meaning that they likely aren’t kept in ‘inventory’ because they’re research devices), which probably hasn’t been maintained for over a decade, and now has to be refurbed (which might require a variance in one or more of these goofy damn treaties we’ve signed, because we’re effectively creating a weapon here). So that’s going to take some time, especially since the Russians, French and other widely known foot-draggers are signatories.
Now you’re going to use it in an underground explosion (which will absolutely require a treaty exception from other signatories, because it will be taken as an underground test of a nuke device). Let’s say you get lucky and get a variance of an underground test at the same time as the above issue of creating a new weapon, if there is some treaty restriction there. We’re looking at at least a month if Obama gets on the phone on Monday. And we already know that Obama hasn’t got the executive leadership skills to drag an incontinent five year old in the direction of a restroom.
Now, on top of this, I’ve read rather extensively of the whole of the scientific community and their sub-culture of opposition surrounding nuclear power, much less nuclear weapons. I’m talking of people with PhD’s in physics, BTW. Nominally smart people, but also very anti-nuke, and some are arguably anti-American as well. We can insert references from all manner of do-gooder groups of accredited scientists who are anti-nuke who will raise a hue and cry against using a nuke. They’re going to call for Congressional hearings, they’re going to protest any possible use of a nuke whatsoever - in part, because it will be an excuse to refurb a nuke and pop it off underground — ie, there are military nuke efficacy issues they’re going to contend are happening here.
More time pissed away dealing with the evaluations of those people.
Now toss in all the usual suspects in the environmental community who are already howling like ruptured ducks, groups who have the ear of the Obama administration.
Still think it is a quick fix?
I don’t. I see any and all talk of using a nuke as just pissing time down a bottomless pit when compared to most all other solutions that could be engineered.
I’ve said it once. Now I’ll say it again:
“Quick, cheap, correct. Pick any two.”
The pressure coming out of a 36” pipe is so great it’s like trying to place a knife in a moving sheath. Have you tried to place your palm on something that was gushing at 1400 PSI,,,pretty difficult to stop. Don’t know how else to explain it. If the could slow the flow it would be easier to telescope differing sizes of pipe down into the hole until they could cap it.
Could someone explain to me how the force of the oil leak is greater than the force/pressure of the ocean/water?
“because I have idea about this stuff”
I meant to say - ‘because I have NO idea about this stuff...’
Sorry, just woke from a nap, time for a little more caffeine.
Maybe the Gulf of Mexico is destined to become the Lake of Fire?
Thanks seeker41, that makes sense.
But imagine how nice the Gulf would look if it glowed in the dark...
After all of his nuclear non-proliferation crap (as well as the declaration that he would not respond to a nuclear attack in kind), my gut tells me it will be a cold day in hell before he nukes the leak.
The hole was 13,000ft below the bottom and my expert says that they hit a very porous gaseous level that blew the mud up and stopped circulation resulting in the blow "out". An explosion of any type at that depth could be almost volcanic in magnitude.
Didn't I hear that 0bamanation is going to give the teachers 120 billion?
$40 billion is small potatoes, just ship those folks the cashish, no problemo...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.