yes yes. We are aware that the new republican solution is the nuke from orbit strategy. By going down this road the republicans can say they offered a solution but lets think for a moment about the RISKS involved. Are you 100% sure that we wont cause more problems then we fix?
Firstly, it is not a Republican strategy, it is a Russian strategy based on the four times they used it to plug their own massive natural gas leaks. See my post #71 in this very same thread before panicking. It seems to have worked three out of four times and it possibly could have worked the fourth if the Russians had better data on the location of the leak. Considering it is now 30 years later, and BP does have an excellent idea of where the leak is, maybe the same problem does not apply.
Secondly, it is not a "nuke from orbit," which I guess you bizarrely extrapolated into the real world from playing that CODMW2 single mode campaign too many times in a row. It would be a calculated and limited detonation way down deep under the waters of the Gulf. You would probably see no more than a big ripple on the surface and feel the earth move under your feet if you were in closer proximity than anyone else would plan to be. BP would not do it, the U.S. Navy would at the direction of the National Command Authority - B.H. Obama - mmm mmm mmm.
Thirdly, if you would read my post #90 just above and quoted below for your reading pleasure, you can see that I would expect a full understanding and acceptance of the trade offs to this solution should it be used. I list a few of the expected consequences, others are likely.
I am not advocating anything here, especially without an understanding of the particular sediment/rock layering of the drill site. I am just conjecturing about the feasibility of capping the oil flow at the cost of whatever collateral effects will occur, ie fish kill, shore damage from resultant waves, destabilization of local fault lines, etc. Radiation does not seem to be a worry based on the prior deep water testing.
If the capping efforts don't work, it would be reasonable to consider alternatives that can be more expeditiously applied than watching three or four months of oil gushing out, but always keeping in mind that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
NO solution, NO action or inaction is without consequences. I hope people with maximum expertise on this make the proper choice of anticipated effects versus resultant trade offs.
It may come down in a week that we either accept a massively polluted Gulf or the detonation of a small nuke (and it likely CAN be a pocket nuke, maybe an adaptation of one of the old
MADMs) in an attempt to seal the leak.