Plan B to plug Gulf oil leak: the junk shot! WTF IS THIS?

What the hell are they trying to feed us now?
LINK TO ARTICLE
Concerns escalated yesterday as the best short-term solution for the disastrous oil spill facing the U.S. Gulf coast stalled when engineers desperately realized the initial fix -- employing a giant containment dome -- wasn't going to work when its funnel system clogged with crystallized methane gas.

Fuelling fears of an extended environmental disaster, BP''s giant containment box lay unused on the seabed, a four-storey chamber and the company's best short-term solution to containing the slick. After the setback on Saturday, engineers scrambled to find other solutions and are considering using debris, including tire shards and golf balls, to plug the damaged blowout preventer on the well.

Using a technique called a "junk shot," where debris is pumped into the preventer at high pressure, is one option. Another is attaching a smaller, "top-hat" preventer on top of the damaged one.

"They are actually going to take a bunch of debris -- some shredded up tires, golf balls

and things like that--and under very high pressure shoot it into the preventer itself and see if they can clog it up to stop the leak," U.S. Coast

Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who is leading the U.S. government's response effort, told CBS's Face the Nation.

A BP executive was less conclusive, telling Reuters that crews haven't yet decided what recourse to take and are still examining options, some of which may take weeks or months to implement.

"What we're working on now is we're gathering some data to help us with two things: One is another way to do containment, and the second is other ways to actually stop the flow," said BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles. Using the junk shot would ideally plug up the preventer "the way you might plug up a toilet," Mr. Suttles added.

Employing a junk shot could be risky, however, as experts have warned that excessive tinkering with the blowout preventer -- a 450-ton valve system that should have shut off the oil -- could see crude oil shoot out unchecked at 12 times the current rate.

At least 5,000 barrels, approximately 210,000 gallons, of oil a day are gushing into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 crew members and rupturing the well. BP is also drilling a relief well to halt the leak, but such a solution could take three months, BP executives say.



Read more: www.nationalpost.com...

Well it looks like MacGyver will be getting a phone call soon. I really don't think they have any sensible idea on how to fix the problem. It makes you wonder about the decision making that goes on in this country. This reminds me of the movie Idiocracy. The president couldn't fix any problem without making it worse, that is until he met a man from the past they deemed the smartest man alive to fix those problems. Well maybe this government is just finding things to try until they find the person from the past or future to tell them how to do it right. It just makes you wonder what goes thru their heads in making decisions.

reply to post by discl0sur3


Great! Just what we need. A bunch of oily debris hitting the shores!

Who the hell comes up with this crappola?