Schaliegas: USSR Gas Well Blow Out = Nuclear Bomb Puts Out Fire
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it as evidence that small underground nuclear devices were used to stop well fires and leaks.
What it is
A short clip showing how the Soviet Union used a nuclear explosion to extinguish a blown-out, burning gas well.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2020 to 2021.
What Hacker News said
Cites bori5 · 2020-02 · on “Freeman Dyson Has Died”
In a similar vein there’s a story and YouTube video of Russians plugging an out of control burning oil well with a small nuke. Edit. It was a gas well here’s the link [this video]
Cites chx · 2020-08 · on “Rosatom releases previously classified documentary video of Tsar Bomba nuke test”
Small underground nuclear bombs were used to put out well fires. [LINK] [this video] A few ten megaton bomb would create a very small earthquake, quite probably only detectable by instruments. You'd need to wade into millions-ten of millions of megatons to create an extinction event.
Cites ortusdux · 2021-12 · on “Can you drill into a supervolcano to relieve pressure? (2016)”
Re: the first paragraph's reference to nuking the Deepwater horizon's oil leak, Soviet engineers demonstrated that this was a viable technique back in the 60's. Plenty of wild non-war applications have been proposed for nuclear bombs over the years, but this is the only one I can think of that is actually somewhat of a good idea. Any fallout is minor and contained under 1km+ of bedrock, and the harm prevented is worth the cost. I am surprised that the author dismisses it so rapidly. [LINK] [this video]