Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu has been charged with the task by President Obama to gather a group of experts to form numerous back-up plans on the heels of BP’s inept attempts to cap the gushing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, which exploded on April 20, killing 11 people and launching the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.
Chu’s team members are accomplished scientists of the highest problem-solving order. They include experts who designed the first hydrogen bomb and techniques for drilling mines on Mars.
But ideas are also coming in from other sources.
Ken Price, a fourteen year veteran of the oil industry, has a creative idea to add to the mix.
Here is Ken's statement:
United States Defense agencies have operated in partial secrecy since World War II under the guidelines for increased national security brought on by such occurrences as the cold war with Russia. During and subsequent to this time, research that was begun during the war was continued. As a result, there have been countless valuable developments in military weaponry, including submarines, aircraft, etc.
Due to the threat of another country getting these break-through designs and using them aggressively against another country, they are routinely kept from public view. Knowledge of them is viewed as a threat to national security. Now is the time for the United States Government, under the threat of a current and existing threat to national security, i.e. the Deepwater Horizon oil spill--to produce these valuable and guarded devices in order to properly defend our national sovereignty.
The drawing diagram is an example of a possible solution to the leak at the bottom of the ocean. Number one would involve dropping a device like a bunker-buster bomb. I realize that speed through water would be only a pittance of velocity necessary to puncture the seafloor to the necessary depth. But, perhaps the military already has such a device that can also bore into the seafloor. I know there have been many prototypes.
As for step 2, which would be a more permanent fix, I would like readers to note that the Dept. of Energy applied for and received a patent for a nuclear powered tunnel boring machine in 1972. According to the patent it was able to melt through solid rock at the rate of approximately ten miles per day.
The 1972 patent makes this clear. It states:
".. (D)ebris may be disposed of as melted rock both as a lining for the hole and as a dispersal in cracks produced in the surrounding rock. The rock-melting drill is of a shape and is propelled under sufficient pressure to produce and extend cracks in solid rock radially around the bore by means of hydrostatic pressure developed in the molten rock ahead of the advancing rock drill penetrator. All melt not used in glass-lining the bore is forced into the cracks where it freezes and remains ... "
"... Such a (vitreous) lining eliminates, in most cases, the expensive and cumbersome problem of debris elimination and at the same time achieves the advantage of a casing type of bore hole liner." (US Patent No. 3,693,731, 26 Sep 1972)
"Does this exist today? I surely hope something like it does," said Price. "We know that NASA has done a lot of prototypes for boring on the moon and Mars."
The United States Navy maintains highly classified nuclear equipped ships and submarines, all of which must be recoverable in the event that they sink. The US Navy can salvage and recover virtually any thing they need to. Let's not forget that the technology of the various Defense departments of the United States far transcend those of a corporation.
Since researchers have now put the estimate at 70,000 barrels of oil from the Deepwater Horizon, instead of the underestimated 5,000 by BP, it is time for the leak to be stopped and the damage to be mitigated by whatever means possible.
***Primary source: statement and diagram by Kenneth Price. Jean Williams 2010
Comments
To bad its not as easy as sending men to the moon. I would have warned them myself but I assumed they already new.
Or they could just try this....
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eck8hEhzNp0&feature=player_embedded
The only question is..is there enough available...
Imagine an umbrella with the pointed tip facing down. The tip represents the new pipe insert beneath the hole and the umbrella would open and close off the opening. At the same time people would pump the concrete in the hole. The handle portion would act as the place to put valve and new pipe to continue pumping once concrete is settled
Can we place a 10 foot diameter pipe over the leak and pump the oil from it at the surface. Weld it in sections and lower it over the gusher. The 10 foot diameter pipe would need to be a mile long but can someone tell me why it wouldn't work?
Detonate 2 explosive charges at 180 degrees about 50 feet in the sea bed. Calculate the distance from the pipe and the charge size to generate a blast wave that meets each other at the pipe. The blast wave should be strong enough to clamp the pipe flat. The timing of each detonation has to precise to make sure the blast wave meets at the pipe at the same time. The mud surronding the pipe shuold act as the hammer to compress the pipe.
Simply drop a large tube (siphon plastic, soft and resilient or rubber) that additions over the tube leaking,sheathing it (anchoring on the bottom the circumference of the siphon around the tube leaking with of the ballast).This can convey oil inside the siphon, toward the surface and take him on ships tank.
Use sections of telescopic tubes less the inside diameter of said tube to choke it shut. You need a clean cut off the top to begin with
If the relief well is intended to be drilled and meet the current pipe 2 miles below the surface, why not insert the new drill stem into the riser and send the drill pipe into the same hole until the bottom of the drill hole is reached and then mud is pumped into the top of the oil dome shutting off all flow. Too simple????
use a steel funnel with a coupler on the small end and place it upside down over well head and concrete a mountain mud around it when it sets, hook up the coupler and pump on.
I think the oil could be contained by putting a huge metal box(shaped more like parking cone) with 2 pipelines connecting to the top and a door on the top in between the 2 pipelines. The door will be open as it is lowered onto the leak, when it is in place, the door is shut and sealed. siphon out the oil through the 2 pipes. safe, easy, and still economical enough to collect and use the oil. LETS GO! zachkap15@yahoo.com
I think the oil could be contained by putting a huge metal box(shaped more like parking cone) with 2 pipelines connecting to the top and a door on the top in between the 2 pipelines. The door will be open as it is lowered onto the leak, when it is in place, the door is shut and sealed. siphon out the oil through the 2 pipes. safe, easy, and still economical enough to collect and use the oil. LETS GO! zachkap15@yahoo.com
Why can't they make dresser sleve big enough to cover all with a sub and valve on top. Could be installed with valve open,then close valve after?
This might sound too simple but here me out. If you take an air bag from the suspention of an 18 wheeler or something like that that will slide into the opening and air it up these bags hold alot of wieght and can take a pounding they can also take the cold temperatures. modifiy the bag by adding a pipe thru the middle seperate from the presured bag. most of these bags have a steal plate on top and bottom for mounting, use the plate to run the pipe thru the middle.You can still pump oil thru the center with air presure sealing the pipes on both.Let me know what you think........les55555596@yahoo.com
One idea I developed with a friend involves attaching a collar around the wellpipe opening below the flange. Once the two halves of the collar are bolted together in a tight seal around the pipe, then a cap on a very strong hinge bolt is rotated over the open mouth of the well, and the the cap is bolted down to the collar, sealing off the well.
Alternatively, a a giant missle shaped steel cork with rubber grommets cou
An alternative idea involves a giant missle shaped steel cork, with rubber grommet seals. A cork guide would be set up to direct the cork into the mouth of the well, and a big tank would be welded on top of the cork. A flexible pipe from the surface would be used to drop lead shot into the tank, until its weight would drive the cork into the well, sealing it. A concrete block could then be set atop that to cronk the cork into the bottle good. Someone may have to explain the concept of recorking a bottle to the guzzlers in charg of trying to fix this problem.
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