Because I'm bored... how to stop the BP oil leak!

[Ivory_Oasis]

Yup, I might be a little bored... but I have been thinking of ways to stop the BP oil leak quickly (it's fun to think about? I know...I'm strange...)

Anyway!

Solution 1 (I like this one the best!)- The bladder system

Basically, this uses just a large weight with a bladder under it. It is lowered from above and attached are hoses which run to the surface to a pump (or, it can be worked in with a high pressure system on the weight itself). The hoses go through the weight and into the empty bladder.

The device is lowered on top of the open well (the weight holding it against the pressure of the oil) and the bladder is filled with a 2 part solution which will eventually harden (filling any spaces in the cavity).

If the pipe isn't open and is leaking from bends and such things....they would first need cut off the top of it first to open up a clear opening for the bladder to be lowered into.



Solution 2- Blow it up!

Basically...just blow up the ground around the leak site with a bunch of buried underwater explosives.... this throws up a bunch of material that hopefully covers up the site and slows down the leak. Oh, yea, also liquifies any life in the area and causes huge damage (along with taking a while to actually get devices buried) and having a high chance of failure.

So....probably not the best idea to go with P:

[s.ketch]

Prevention is the best way to solve any problem.

If I understand it correctly, it's a bleed backed by considerable pressure. Anything other than a few tons of impermeable bedrock won't stop it. Oil pools are usually contained in a permeable rock sandwiched between two layers of impermeable rock. Once you drill into the container rock, it won't stop until the pressure is relieved.

Explosives on the surface wouldn't help much as the material displaced wouldn't be dense enough to stop the leak. An explosive placed within the hole might, or it might make the leak worse. If they could lower a very heavy plate over the hole and fasten it into the bedrock that might stop it for a good while. At least until we figure out something better. Could also re-drill the hole and just collect the oil on the surface until it's drained.

[Kagemusha22]

A big wholesome plaster?

[Ilaekae]

1. State problem.

2. Announce that--beginning with the owners and entire upper management of BP, and extending through the Board of Directors, then to all major voting stockholders--until the oil is stopped, every hour ten of the mentioned people will be burned alive and their entire estate seized.

3. A miracle will occur. Trust me...

[jrr]

yeah they'll miraculously dissappear and reappear in some undisclosed island enjoying the weather.

[dpaint]

While I'm not against drilling for oil per se. I just saw a bit on the news about these deep water drilling sites having no contingency plans, they don't have the tech to stop them from leaking if something goes wrong. Seems kinda stupid to me if that is actually true.

[Black Spot]

I remember in to 70s trying to come up with a electrical device that would contain and neutralise oil rendering it harmless. Not sure what it would do to the life forms about though.

[TASmith]

They have boats designed to catch trash floating in rivers. It seems they could design a large boat to suck up oil from spills, siphoning the surface water, filtering it, and collecting the oil. I don't know who'd want to spend the money on it, but it seems one preventative step. You could even have it as an attachment or trailer to existing ships. Capping this thing seems a good idea as well. I wonder just how serious this contamination is...

[Kaffinated]

[Auslander]

Yup, I might be a little bored... but I have been thinking of ways to stop the BP oil leak quickly (it's fun to think about? I know...I'm strange...)

Anyway!

Solution 1 (I like this one the best!)- The bladder system

A variation of your Solution 1 is actually being implemented right now...it's basically a giant, squared off bucket (even simpler than your design) being dropped on top of the well, with a pipe (just like yours) that goes up to a waiting tanker at the surface.

Even though I think they're culpable, wish BP luck, because if it works the spill will be mostly choked off in less than a week. Unfortunately, this approach has never been implemented at this depth before, so it's unexplored territory.

Otherwise, the more permanent solution being planned is to put another exploratory rig up nearby, then drill down, then sideways to pump concrete into the original well to choke it off...that'll take three months. Lotta enviromental damage in that time.

Explosives wouldn't work...the oil's natural pressure is probably sufficient to push it's way through the blockage.

[OldJake666]

This was Kramer's idea...

[Cleverdart]

I’ll bold the part that stood out for the wrong reasons.

“It wasn’t our accident, but we are absolutely responsible for the oil, for cleaning it up, and that’s what we intend to do,” BP Group CEO Tony Hayward told NBC’s “TODAY” show.

The rig that exploded on April 20 and then sank was run by another company, Transocean, he reminded viewers. That rig, he said, “was run by their people, their processes.”

Hayward added that the failure of the rig’s “blow-out preventer” — a device that should have shut off the well when the rig exploded and sank — was “unprecedented in our industry.”

“What has failed here is the ultimate safety device on a drilling rig,” he said. “There are many barriers of protection that you have to go to before you get to this. It isn’t designed to not fail.“

English Fail. My grammer is Gooder.

[BirdBirdBirdX3]

I don't know but I think GM's solution is to build more hummers to suck up all the oil in the world.

[George Abraham]

You can get $80 for every barrel you can collect that's clean and anyone can help.

[SeeNoon]

Isn't this when you persuade a little Dutch boy to stand there w/ his finger over the leak?

[skizex]

I like the idea but think to get the weight they will need to stop 70+ thousand PSI they might use a triangular monolith that is inverted.
Support from both sides as it fills up with underwater cement, one side''s supports blown when full to specified weight and the weight pivots and is planted...just an idea that popped in my head, maybe someone can take it from there if it has any merit...the sea floor shouldnt get crushed too badly so it needs some cushioning somehow as it comes down on top of the toxic slime...
This is my very "crude" mcpaint:

[Black Spot]

Via twitter by katbrunngraffe. Might need an awful amount of it.

[Fuish]

Via twitter by katbrunngraffe. Might need an awful amount of it.

It's Brunnegraff and while yeah it would take a lot of hay, it would be better than doing nothing, and the oil would still be usable. Two wins!