One More Proposal to Plug the Oil Leak, But Can We Afford To Make Things Worse?

Thursday, June 17, 2010 - 11:00 in Earth & Climate

And the Spill Continues U.S. Coast Guard As BP sits down for a not-so-friendly back and forth with Congress this morning it seems the oil giant is resigned to let the Gulf oil leak flow until the relief wells are completed in August. But a nuclear physicist from California thinks he's devised a method that could stop the gushing well by pumping steel balls into the riser. It's likely to work, he says, and even if it fails it won't make matters any worse. Naturally, not everyone involved is so optimistic. Saying things can't get any worse in the Gulf at this point seems like a dubious claim, but Willard Wattenburg's idea has made it all the way to the desk of Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Why? Wattenburg orchestrated the capping of 500 wells in just seven months in Kuwait in the aftermath of Gulf One, a job that was...

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