I know it sounds crazy.
The idea of violently releasing a blast of toxic nuclear radiation in the name of saving the environment is oxymoronic, and almost doesn't pass the laugh test. But I just learned from 'Komsomoloskaya Pravda', Russia's most popular tabloid newspaper, that Russia, since 1966, has successfully used the nuclear explosion strategy FOUR TIMES to avert various petrocalamities. The word 'successfully' should probably be in quotes - but nevertheless, it's suddenly an interesting dilemma - at least depending on the extent of the imminent effects of the spill.
Apparently, the detonation of a well-placed smallish nuke, not much bigger than the one dropped on Hiroshima, moves enough rock with enough force to actually squash oil and/or gas leaks.
Disclaimer: they tried it a fifth time, and it didn't work. It also sounds like maybe it's only been done underground, not underwater.
Pravda article somewhat hilariously translated by google here:
http://translate.google.com/...
original here: http://www.kp.ru/...
excerpts from Pravda article:
First underground nuclear explosion was used to extinguish burning gas wells in "Urt-Bulak (80 km from Bukhara) 30 September 1966. Power charge was 30 kilotons. For comparison, the Hiroshima bomb exploded about 20 kilotons. But at a height of 600 meters. A near Bukhara - at a depth of six kilometers.
Powerful nuclear "plugs" - sometimes 3 Hiroshima - we have enjoyed until 1979. And only once failed. In 1972 in Kharkov region failed to block the emergency gas blowout. The explosion was mysteriously left on the surface, forming a mushroom cloud. Although the charge was minimal - just a 4 kiloton. And laid deep - for more than two kilometers.
USSR organized underground nuclear explosions for peaceful purposes in the period from 1966 to 1988. In total, the former Soviet Union tore more than a hundred atomic bombs. According to some data - 124, on the other 169. And that - not counting the military testing of nuclear weapons.
We can be sure that over the past five decades the US has been nuking things underground too, though I don't know if that information is available to the public. I trust we stopped doing that stuff after the USA signed the 1996 International Test Ban Treaty.
Please understand, I do not support nuking the gulf. I am hoping that the dome cover solution - a 400 100 ton cement and steel device which BP is positioning over the leak as we speak, is successful. But there is something both poignantly tragic and darkly humorous about the 'nuclear option' as it were. It's like, "Can humankind's rapacious destructive capabilities be harnessed to save themselves from an even-worse self-induced disaster? Stay tuned..." I guess truth is stranger than Dr. Strangelove. Cheers.
h/t to Raw Story for pointing me to the Pravda piece. Full rawstory.com article here: http://rawstory.com/...
p.s. (self-freep alert) Will you please add your support to my DFA Netroots Nation Scholarship application? The link is here: http://www.democracyforamerica.com/...
Thank you! My diaries aren't usually this macabre. ;P
UPDATE 1: From Front Toward Enemy in the comments:
Is Russia one of our Facebook friends? 'Cuz I'm not takin' that kind of advice from someone I'm not absolutely sure has my best interests at heart...
and a gem from Vinlander:
The lesson is "avoid Russian sushi."