Nuking the Oil Spill

Jul 7, 2010 by James

When it comes to handling nuclear weapons, Russia is clearly the expert. Never-mind all of their accidents like Chernobyl, losing nuclear submarines, leaking nuclear reactors, and loss of nuclear weapons after the cold war. The former long-time Russian minister of nuclear energy and veteran Soviet physicist Viktor Mikhailov thinks that a 10 kiloton blast just over the spewing BP oil well will solve all problems. He says “ I don’t know what they are waiting for”.

Think he’s crazy? Well apparently he is not as the option to nuke the oil well keeps coming up. Milo Nordyke, one of the people behind U.S. research into non military nuclear usage in the 60′s and 70′s says this is a viable last-resort. Matthew Simmons also believes that the nuclear option is the way to go, and he is the former energy adviser to George W. Bush.

Bill Clinton even voiced his opinion in favor of the explosion option saying: “Unless we send the Navy down deep to blow up the well and cover the leak with piles and piles and piles of rock and debris, which may become necessary … unless we are going to do that, we are dependent on the technical expertise of these people from BP,” Clinton told the Fortune/Time/CNN Global Forum in South Africa on June 29.

While plenty of people are pushing for the nuclear option both BP and the United States have ruled out using any nuclear blast to stem the problem, and have also ruled out an explosion. What’s your take on the issue, do you think we should resort to a nuclear option to stop the 60,000 barrels of oil a day from entering the gulf? Or do you think that we should continue with what we are doing?

Source: MSNBC