The Top Kill attempts have failed, and the Government has given its response.
He (President Obama) said US Energy Secretary Steven Chu was leading a team of "the world's top scientists, engineers and experts" in devising a contingency plan should the "top kill" attempt fail.
In such a scenario, "there could be oil coming up until August when the relief wells...are finished," Carol Browner, special assistant to the president for energy and climate change, told NBC's "Meet The Press."
Appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation," Ms. Browner added that government experts believe BP's containment operation could result in a temporary 20% increase in the volume of oil spilling from the well. That's because the company will cut off a kink in the pipe that currently seems to be holding back some of the gusher, Ms. Browner said. She added that government experts believe the increase could last four to seven days.
A recent interview with Matthew Simmons on Bloomberg discussed the possibility of a nuclear explosion being used to seal the leaking Macondo oil well.
This idea was floated a couple of weeks back by the Russian periodical Pravda, which noted the technique was used 5 times to seal leaking wells in the old Soviet Union (once unsuccessfully in attempt to stop a gas leak in the Ukraine - though the likely environmental damage might cause you to wonder what the definition of "success" is).
http://anz.theoildrum.com/...
The first use of this technique was in Uzbekistan in 1966, with the blast 1.5 times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb and at a depth of 1.5 kilometers.
As this post on You tube points out: An Atomic Bomb will stop the Gulf Oil Leak L@@K! http://www.youtube.com/...
Subterranean nuclear blasts were also used over 150 times in the Soviet Union for tasks such as creating underground storage spaces for gas or building canals.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has a background piece on the Soviet program - "The Soviet Program for Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Explosions".
While Obama fiddles and Chu debates, British Petroleum is going to be the First Corporation to Kill an Entire Ocean™
For those of you who read my first diary on the subject OBAMA OIL COMPANY STOOGE and still choose to trust Obama and BP flame away!
The best, Braindead