They've also used them to stop underwater oil leaks. If we had done that with the last BP spill things would have been solved a lot quicker!
Not as quick as if they had threatened to nuke Tony Hayward's favourite golf course instead.
The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966
21–30 of 129 posts
Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
We quickly realized that bacteria have evolved to eat oil, so it wasn't quite as big of an environmental disaster as first expected. I would not expect radiation to improve the situation at all.
Plus wouldn't there be some concern about the ocean floor collapsing due to the blast?
Collapsing into what?
Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966
#23... as well as once in 1968, twice in 1972, and once in 1981. 0.o The USSR had a whole program to investigate peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs), called Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy. [1] Sadly, some of these experiments went rather wrong, unexpectedly releasing lots of radioactive nasty near populated areas. The US also did this sort of thing from 1961 to 1973, and the program was cancelled in '77. [2]…
Here's a timelapse of every nuclear explosion since 1945. It really puts into perspective just how many nukes have gone off for purposes other than to kill people. It's amazing that only two were used for violence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY According to the video, people have detonated 2053 nukes, and America has the dubious distinction of having detonated over 1000.
Only two were actually used to kill people. Most of the rest were preparations for it.
Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966
#24... as well as once in 1968, twice in 1972, and once in 1981. 0.o The USSR had a whole program to investigate peaceful nuclear explosions (PNEs), called Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy. [1] Sadly, some of these experiments went rather wrong, unexpectedly releasing lots of radioactive nasty near populated areas. The US also did this sort of thing from 1961 to 1973, and the program was cancelled in '77. [2]…
My "favorite" Soviet use of nuclear explosions was for deep seismic exploration: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=deep+seismic+sounding+wi...
Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966
#25Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966
#26The US and Russia cooperated on a program to do this in space in order to stop a asteroid from destroying the planet. Bruce Willis led the mission.
Wow. That's a lot of down votes for a joke/movie reference that shouldn't have offended anyone. Maybe this community isn't for me!
Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966
#27The US and Russia cooperated on a program to do this in space in order to stop a asteroid from destroying the planet. Bruce Willis led the mission.
Wow. That's a lot of down votes for a joke/movie reference that shouldn't have offended anyone. Maybe this community isn't for me!
It might not be. We are working VERY hard to make sure it doesn't turn into reddit.
So jokes are strongly discouraged (with a few rare exceptions), as are memes, clichés, image macros, or anything like that.
Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966
#28The US and Russia cooperated on a program to do this in space in order to stop a asteroid from destroying the planet. Bruce Willis led the mission.
Wow. That's a lot of down votes for a joke/movie reference that shouldn't have offended anyone. Maybe this community isn't for me!
You've been here for almost a year. Have you read the guidelines for HN? Specifically "Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."
In general, comments in this community move the discussion forward. I'd argue that your original comment added nothing to the discussion and was not intended to, which was the reason I downvoted it.
Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966
#29The US and Russia cooperated on a program to do this in space in order to stop a asteroid from destroying the planet. Bruce Willis led the mission.
Wow. That's a lot of down votes for a joke/movie reference that shouldn't have offended anyone. Maybe this community isn't for me!
I doubt that anyone was offended. But you will find a very strong negative reaction to jokes in the comments. I think there is a (very wise) desire to avoid a reddit type culture that rewards extended jokes and similar things.
This may well be the community for you, but just be aware that a lot of people are justifiably frightened of what can happen to online communities.
I think a good rule of thumb would be 'would be a waste of someone's time to read this comment'. People value the possibility that we can learn valuable things on Hacker News, but that becomes impossible if you have to wade through layers and layers of pointless jokes.
Not intending to be unwelcoming, but I think it can be a surprise.
Re: The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
i suggest you investigate the side effects of corexit that have emerged since the incident
I note that the FDA didn't find a problem with food safety ( http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/RecallsOutbreaksEmergencie... ) the Wikipedia page references an unreliable Vice/MotherJones article. Not finding much on its side effects from research though. Do you have some additional pointers? these guys http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=24108904 suggest that it doesn't help the bacteria work, but doesn't s…
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