It's an interesting question, that one, isn't it? I don't think "nuke" is the operative word because they would want a tiny nuke so "conventional" explosives might do. From what I hear Prof. Bea and some other sources saying I infer that the real danger of that approach is that it can make things much, much worse. (Namely, while it might collapse the pipe, it might also create a large total volume capacity of escape paths for the oil, spread over a larger area. There is already a new leak from the sea-bed 400ft away.).
Probably a dumb question, but since I don't know the answer, I'll ask it: why not blow up the entire reservoir with a big thermonuclear bomb? Or otherwise set it on fire such that it all burns up before getting out?
Oil needs air to burn. You can't burn all of that sucker at once, you'd start a hurricane as all the air started swirling into feed it and then there CO2 would create an outward pressure wave that would prevent it from staying lit. Complicated and messy.
Not sure about the hurricane. Hurricanes have orders of magnitude more energy than atomic bombs. It would have to be helluva fire.
I didn't mean that it would generate one by itself, but it could disturb the air currents significantly in the area, possibly allowing one to form via some kind of feedback loop. Disclosure: I am not an atmospheric scientist.
This is a serious question that I've been wondering. You seem like you might know. The drill goes very deep below the sea floor into the earth to find the pocket of oil, right? Why can't they just collapse the hole they dug using explosives on the sea floor and allow it to close in on itself? Surely it is fragile if it's so deep/hard to drill..
What if it creates lots of little holes all around the area and the oil continues to leak. Now you have a bigger problem on your hands -- stopping lots of leaks a mile below the surface instead of just one.
From what I've read, that option isn't viable in the gulf, due to the composition of the ocean floor there. It would be more likely to open new breaches into the same bore hole than seal the leak.