The leak of oil in the Gulf of Mexico is proposed to be blocked by a nuclear explosion

Oil leakage from a damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico can be eliminated with an underground nuclear explosion, Komsomolskaya Pravda writes in the Science section. The source reports that a controlled nuclear explosion allows millions of tons of soil to be moved simultaneously and, thus, to close the leak. To do this, you need to build the correct three-dimensional model of the soil, calculate the direction of the shift of rocks and drill a hole for the bomb.

The method is so simple, Komsomolskaya Pravda writes, that it was used five times in the USSR, including four times successfully.

For the first time an underground nuclear explosion was used to extinguish a burning gas well at the Urta-Bulak field (80 km from Bukhara) on September 30, 1966. The power of the charge was 30 kilotons at a depth of one and a half kilometers. An unsuccessful attempt occurred in 1972 near Kharkov .

In the USSR, from 1966 to 1988, according to various sources, 124 or 169 peaceful nuclear explosions were carried out. With the help of atomic bombs, “they carried out seismic exploration of mineral resources, probing the subsoil, created underground tanks for storing gas and chemical waste, dug canals, built dams, and enhanced oil recovery.” In general, is there at least one problem that cannot be solved by a nuclear explosion?