

Graphic: Methods That Have Been Tried to Stop the Leaking Oil - cpg
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/25/us/20100525-topkill-diagram.html?ref=us

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giardini
I find it difficult to believe that the basic mechanism of the BPO is
unworkable. It's composed of 4 sequential independent valves, usually
hydraulically-activated from a remote location: closing any one of the 4
should shut the well down. It should be possible to disconnect/bypass the
communications, electrical, and hydraulic circuitry and manipulate the
individual valves directly. The parts are of extremely high quality metals. At
the very least several options are available:

a) disconnect the current hydraulics, connect to an alternative hydraulic
source and then close one of the valves,

b) disconnect the current hydraulics and use physical methods (e.g., ramrod,
jackhammer, wrench etc.) to mechanically force each side of one of the valves
closed. In other words, simply screw (in the case of the valve rods being
threaded) or beat (if valve rods are smooth) the valve plates into position by
hammering on their external valve rods. A jackhammer might work well since,
should there be any obstruction in the valve, it should tend to break it up.
If the valve rods are threaded, alternately tightening and loosening each side
of the valve should tend to break up obstructions.

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jcapote
Exactly what I thought, why did the blow out preventer fail? It looks like it
was designed for just this sort of thing

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ars
I hope that once it's sealed they recover the blowout preventer and figure out
why it failed.

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ck2
Why isn't it mandatory to drill a relief well at the same time as the main
well?

Other countries have this requirement, why didn't the USA?

Since it's the only thing that really works, now and with past disasters, if
we don't pass a law to make it mandatory after this, we deserve to have spills
happen again and again.

Oh and BP's deepwater Atlantis has MORE safety problems than Horizon and no
relief well.

~~~
ars
Other counties do NOT have this requirement. That was a reddit fiction (in
general if you saw it on reddit you can be pretty sure it's not true).

See here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1389688>

~~~
ck2
Hmm, maybe I subconsciously got it from Reddit.

Well then the USA can be a pioneer again in something, mitigated greed via
sane laws and requirements to prevent billions in damage and wildlife
needlessly lost.

Just imagine if we get hit by ANOTHER one of these in the next decade, and
here's hoping no major hurricanes this summer.

~~~
ars
Be careful. There is no difference between a relief well and a regular well.

What do you do if your relief well blows?

Maybe if you drill two simultaneously, making sure they stay in sync. But the
relief well needs to intersect with the regular one, so that might not
actually be possible.

> and here's hoping no major hurricanes this summer.

Oh no. Quite the opposite! A hurricane would be the best thing possible. It
would clean the entire area like nothing else can.

~~~
ck2
Hurricane would be good?

Where will the oil disappear to in a hurricane? Alternate dimension? Or simply
coating somewhere else on earth it's not supposed to be?

~~~
ars
The oil is biodegradable. Very biodegradable actually. All you need is oxygen.

In deep water there isn't much oxygen, and when it coats shores only the top
layer degrades (so it takes some time). But if you can spread it out it will
all be gone.

And once degraded it leaves no residue at all.

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yrral
I've always wondered why they don't just intersect the relief wells with the
original well closer to the surface (don't have to drill as much). Is there a
technical reason for why they don't do that?

~~~
ars
They want to do something called a "Bottom Kill" vs. a "Top Kill". So you have
to be at the bottom of the well.

A top kill doesn't always work, but a bottom kill is pretty guaranteed.

The oil pushes whatever material you inject up. So you want to be at the
bottom so the material fills the entire pipe.

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GFischer
My uncle (blacksmith/inventor) is pretty certain that step 1 (cutting the
pipe) was a mistake, as he had a solution (which he e-mailed to BP, which of
course ignored it) which involved the pipe (and a clamp).

OTOH he doesn't have data on the exact pressures and forces involved, so BP
probably had far better information on which to act. (and it's far easier to
be an armchair engineer!)

~~~
asmithmd1
The pressure of the oil at the leak is 3500 psi.

It is coming out of a 20" dia pipe.

3.1415 * 10^2 * 3500 = ~550 tons of force, about the weight of a 200ft ship

Then throw in a gas/oil 2-phase fluid with different viscosities and varying
temperature -- it is not an easy problem to solve

Some good technical info here: [http://www.greendump.net/the-oil-
drum/deepwater-oil-spill-th...](http://www.greendump.net/the-oil-
drum/deepwater-oil-spill-the-congressional-illustrations-and-friday-early-am-
thread)

~~~
GFischer
Thanks, I'm passing the link and the information to my uncle right now (and
I'll ask him for the details of his proposed solution :) )

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aresant
"BP constructed a four-story containment dome" - keyword they "constructed",
didn't have ready made.

Clearly this is taking so long because there is absolutely no preperation,
these guys are following a manual and throwing mud against the wall.

Our gov't stimulous throws untold millions out into stimulous programs that
offer little or no value, hopefully some bright gov't lacky decides to throw
some R&D money into DARPA or otherwise to build better containment systems in
the future instead of relying on corporations who have a max $75m tab.

The whole thing makes me sick. Sorry for the rant.

