Let's Nuke the Oil Spill—Literally

Because BP's self-serving repair attempts are laughable
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted May 17, 2010 7:36 AM CDT
Let's Nuke the Oil Spill—Literally
Let's do this to the oil well. Only underwater.   (AP Photo/U.S. Army via Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, HO)

Nearly a month into the BP oil spill disaster, it's time to get serious. It's time to blow the well shut with a nuclear weapon, argues nuclear policy scholar Christopher Brownfield—seriously. So far, BP's been trying to clumsily fix the well rather than destroy it, most recently using a mile-long pipe. “It's like putting a 4-inch straw into a 22-inch-diameter fire hose—a sordid attempt by BP at drinking its own milkshake,” Brownfield writes for the Daily Beast. “BP appears to be just as concerned with protecting its shareholders as with stopping this catastrophe.”

“For more than 100 years, explosives have been used to break the necks of runaway oil wells, sealing them shut with tons and tons of rock.” The Soviet military used nuclear weapons on four separate occasions to stop underwater oil spills. The only problem: detonating a nuke would be awkward for President Obama, given his Nobel prize, and it would give states like Iran an argument for building peaceful nuclear weapons. But perhaps the Army can make do with conventional explosives. Either way, it's time to stop protecting BP's assets. (More Gulf oil spill stories.)

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