WASHINGTON, June 11 (UPI) -- A shock wave from a 21,600-pound guided bomb dropped on a leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico could cauterize a broken riser, scientists said.
British petroleum giant BP is struggling to control a massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico more than 50 days after the Deepwater Horizon oil platform caught fire and sank. A containment cap on the well more than a mile below the surface is capturing some of the oil and gas, though oil has seeped into vulnerable marshlands in the U.S. south.
Franz Gayl, a scientist working for the U.S. Marine Corps, in a presentation sent to The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire said dropping a giant non-nuclear bomb on the site would seal the well.
Gayl in his presentation suggests dropping the GBU-43/B blast bomb on the site. The giant guided bomb was dubbed the "mother of all bombs" during the early salvos of the Iraq War but never used in combat.
Gayl theorizes that the blast wave from the detonation would seal the leaking riser. Water pressure at 5,000 feet underwater would contain much of the blast.
Ideas are pouring in from across the public sector to help contain what is being described as the greatest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history.
BP said relief wells would be operational by August to stop the leak.
