Nuclear physics and the oil spill.

[Freeman Dyson]

The US has sent a team of nuclear physicists to help BP plug the "catastrophic" flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico from its leaking Deepwater Horizon well, as the Obama administration becomes frustrated with the oil giant's inability to control the situation.

The five-man team – which includes a man who helped develop the first hydrogen bomb in the 1950s – is the brainchild of Steven Chu, President Obama's Energy Secretary.

He has charged the men with finding solutions to stop the flow of oil.

The five scientists visited BP's main crisis centre in Houston earlier this week, along with Mr Chu, and are to continue to work with the company's scientists and external advisers to reach an answer.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Hayward said the five-hour meeting involved a "very deep dive" into the situation at hand, with "lots of nuclear physicists and all sorts of people coming up with some quite good ideas actually."

Pressed further about the meeting, he said they had "come up with one good idea" but declined to elaborate.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...ts-to-tackle-BPs-Gulf-of-Mexico-oil-leak.html

I don't know a damn thing about nuclear physics so can anyone shed some light here? How does this apply to nuclear physics? What are some of the ideas that they could be considering?

 

[mathman]

Nuclear physics as such has nothing to do with the oil spill. However nuclear physicists tend to be pretty imaginative, so I presume they are there to add their smarts.

 

[turbo]

Just a stab in the dark, but nuclear densometers have been used to measure the mass of materials for over 30 years. Combined with ultrasonic flow-detection, such technology could perhaps nail down the true flow-rates of the leaks.

 

[Freeman Dyson]

Nuclear physics as such has nothing to do with the oil spill. However nuclear physicists tend to be pretty imaginative, so I presume they are there to add their smarts.

I was thinking that may be the case too. Just like a blue-ribbon commission in general. Kind of like how Feynman was a top guy on the panel investigating the Challenger shuttle. Just curious as to why so many nuclear physicists in particular.

 

[Freeman Dyson]

Just a stab in the dark, but nuclear densometers have been used to measure the mass of materials for over 30 years. Combined with ultrasonic flow-detection, such technology could perhaps nail down the true flow-rates of the leaks.

Thanks for that information. The news articles don't say really anything about details.

 

[Antiphon]

Never send a professor to do an engineer's job.

 

[minerva]

Just curious as to why so many nuclear physicists in particular.

Because it was Chu's idea to round up a bunch of top people from the DOE labs, and they tend to have quite a few nuclear physicists.

 

[OmCheeto]

Never send a professor to do an engineer's job.

Never send an engineer to do a technicians job.

As a former nuclear technician, I can assure you, I solved several problems that the engineers stood around just scratching their heads wondering what to design to fix the problem.

Sometimes, you just need to fix the problem immediately, regardless of how many pop rivets and rolls of duct tape it might take.

Prettiness can wait until you are safely back at dock.

 

[Creator]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...ts-to-tackle-BPs-Gulf-of-Mexico-oil-leak.html

I don't know a damn thing about nuclear physics so can anyone shed some light here? How does this apply to nuclear physics? What are some of the ideas that they could be considering?

The idea is too set off a nuclear detonation to fuse the dang thing closed with the heat.
That seems to be the implication.
The Russians did it a few years back (in the 60's) to seal a large uncontrollable natural gas leak they couldn't shut down, several times, I believe.
However, I wouldn't advise inviting the Russians over to try it here.
Besides, Obama would never be able to withstand the wrath of the environ-mentalists' if he tried it. ;)) It would be political suicide.
And besides, using nukes for engineering problem solving really opens up the excuse ridden rationale for every 3rd world country to develop nukes...(or borrow one from their friendly anti-Western neighbors).
Just my opinion...

Creator.

 

[mathman]

The idea is too set off a nuclear detonation to fuse the dang thing closed with the heat.

That's the craziest idea I've heard yet!

 

[Creator]

That's the craziest idea I've heard yet!

Yea, and the bottom sucking Catfish, crabs and oysters don't seem to like the idea either. ;))

,,,

 

[Creator]

OK; Here you have it...Live from Russia...

Gas flame was huge but the oil gushed out and flooded the countryside.
Notice how c-a-r-efully this guy lowered the nuke into the newly drilled directional well.
It wasn't the heat, however... it was the blast pressure that closed it.
See how easy that was?

Creator ;))

 

[pallidin]

When you have a leak you put pressure on it that exceeds the outflow pressure.
So, why can't we drop a few thousand tons(or whatever) of material to do this?

Brute force method, I say!

 

[russ_watters]

Good idea...I think they should try it next week http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/21/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T2

 

[pallidin]

Good idea...I think they should try it next week http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/21/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T2

Ok, wasn't aware of their plan. Thanks for the info. In any event, best of luck to all those working to mitigate/stopping this true ecological disaster.