Plug the leak..your ideas?

[Mr. P]

I thought it would be interesting to hear ideas from our members.
I have one I'll post after it noodles out to be workable.

GO! :thumb:

[Nukeman]

mine was basically a industrial grade "Foley catheter". I smaller pipe with a rubber or Kevlar tube attached and deflated around the end. When you place the smaller pipe in the larger one you inflate the tube to secure it in place and begin pumping out the oil. Not a permanent fix but one to stop the flow until a relief well can be drilled!!!!

[Silver]

Obama should continue with his previous plan since taking office....
BLAME BUSH...

[Gaffer]

My suggestion is to let the engineers that have experience in that stuff have a free hand to do what they need to do. The government can go micromanage gm and stay out of the way. Let the hands on people do their work.

[krisy]

My suggestion is to let the engineers that have experience in that stuff have a free hand to do what they need to do. The government can go micromanage gm and stay out of the way. Let the hands on people do their work.

Laura Ingrim said something simliar on O Reily tonight. She said to get the brightest and best from universities,send them down there and let their collective genius go to work.

[DragonStryk72]

A set of huge hydraulic clamps could be used to krimp shut the valve, stopping or at least severely slowing the flow of the thing, keeping it shut long enough to allow them to affect a more permanent solution to the problem.

As to the clean up, they need to stress containment right now, to keep the oil from spreading any further.

[crin63]

A low yield nuclear weapon dropped down the tube.

[PostmodernProphet]

A low yield nuclear weapon dropped down the tube.

close, but I don't think you need nuclear.....collapse the whole system....

[CSM]

close, but I don't think you need nuclear.....collapse the whole system....

it is apparent to me that BP (and the government) want the oil; otherwise they could close that leaking well by dynamiting the darned thing. If they did that then the powers that be would NEVER get the oil!

[Monkeybone]

you would need the nuke for the heat to melt the stone to seal it all around, anything else would just blow it up and make a bigger hole that we couldn't plug.

To me the nuke or some kind of clamp would probably be the best. Or you think that they would lower a larger pipe down over it and have it funnel up to a pump, like a straw. I know that wouldn't catch all of it but could get most of it.


you think that they would have a website that ppl could put their ideas on... find an average joe solution.

[crin63]

you would need the nuke for the heat to melt the stone to seal it all around, anything else would just blow it up and make a bigger hole that we couldn't plug.

To me the nuke or some kind of clamp would probably be the best. Or you think that they would lower a larger pipe down over it and have it funnel up to a pump, like a straw. I know that wouldn't catch all of it but could get most of it.


you think that they would have a website that ppl could put their ideas on... find an average joe solution.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0529/energy-expert-nuke-oil-leak/


Weapons labs in the former Soviet Union developed special nukes for use to help pinch off the gas wells. They believed that the force from a nuclear explosion could squeeze shut any hole within 82 to 164 feet (25 to 50 meters), depending on the explosion's power. That required drilling holes to place the nuclear device close to the target wells.

A first test in the fall of 1966 proved successful in sealing up an underground gas well in southern Uzbekistan, and so the Russians used nukes four more times for capping runaway wells.

[PostmodernProphet]

you would need the nuke for the heat to melt the stone to seal it all around, anything else would just blow it up and make a bigger hole that we couldn't plug.


I don't know....every movie I've ever seen where they blew up a tunnel, the whole thing collapsed and sealed it up.....why would an oil drilling be any different?.....

[PostmodernProphet]

Or you think that they would lower a larger pipe down over it and have it funnel up to a pump, like a straw. I know that wouldn't catch all of it but could get most of it.

that was the topkill method that failed, wasn't it?.....

[PostmodernProphet]

you would need the nuke for the heat to melt the stone to seal it all around

I'm having a hard time visualizing a radioactive Gulf of Mexico as an improvement to an oil spill.....

[Monkeybone]

I don't know....every movie I've ever seen where they blew up a tunnel, the whole thing collapsed and sealed it up.....why would an oil drilling be any different?.....yah cuz everything in movies works. haha. I'm joking with yah PMP. Like I said, and it probably mentions it in Crin's post/link, you need the heat to seal it shut becuase if you just collapsed it would still find it's way out. not as fast, but still coming. as wherein the nuke would blow it up and melt it at the same time which is apparently what you want. If it worked the way it was planned that is...


that was the topkill method that failed, wasn't it?..... I thought that the top kill was that they were pumping a thick mud/cement sorta thing into it to plug it up and then they would redrill it. What i meant with my "straw theory" was bacically a vent sorta thing. a larger pipe lowered over it to direct it where we want it to go until we can manage it. heck, build around the pipe then.


I'm having a hard time visualizing a radioactive Gulf of Mexico as an improvement to an oil spill..... exactly. seems like a damned if you do, damned it you don't sorta thing. Let oil go along our entire coast or nuke it and kill a certain area for years? and who knows where it would spread... not that it would have to be a large one.

[Monkeybone]

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0529/energy-expert-nuke-oil-leak/
thanks for the link Crin. But i want to say that I also read somewhere was that none of these were underwater.. I will try to find that.

[DragonStryk72]

it is apparent to me that BP (and the government) want the oil; otherwise they could close that leaking well by dynamiting the darned thing. If they did that then the powers that be would NEVER get the oil!

Um, not to put a damper on that thought, but wouldn't exploding the well set of the ignitable liquid that's pouring into and set fire to a significant portion of the ocean, and possibly mainland?

[DragonStryk72]

Got a new idea while I was making pbj. what we should is get specifically fitting pieces of metal to fit over the pipe, and clamp them into place around the edges so that they are fitted to the pipe (like on a preserve jar)

[Monkeybone]

Um, not to put a damper on that thought, but wouldn't exploding the well set of the ignitable liquid that's pouring into and set fire to a significant portion of the ocean, and possibly mainland?fire can burn underwater?....

[PostmodernProphet]

I thought that the top kill was that they were pumping a thick mud/cement sorta thing into it to plug it up and then they would redrill it. What i meant with my "straw theory" was bacically a vent sorta thing. a larger pipe lowered over it to direct it where we want it to go until we can manage it. heck, build around the pipe then.


maybe I have the name mixed up....which one was the five story tall thing that froze up on them...



exactly. seems like a damned if you do, damned it you don't sorta thing. Let oil go along our entire coast or nuke it and kill a certain area for years? and who knows where it would spread... not that it would have to be a large one.
well, I would try a non nuclear bunker buster first.....

[PostmodernProphet]

Got a new idea while I was making pbj. what we should is get specifically fitting pieces of metal to fit over the pipe, and clamp them into place around the edges so that they are fitted to the pipe (like on a preserve jar)

I think that's the one they are trying right now....

[DragonStryk72]

fire can burn underwater?....

Check out the Lake Erie fire. They also proved it on Mythbusters that you can make water explode. If there's enough oil in that water, then yeah, it'll catch

[DragonStryk72]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/

Had to share this link with you guys on this problem.

[namvet]

BP is considering an idea 2 guys came up with for freezing the oil. just saw it on CNN.