NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS AREA TIME TESTED WAY OF STOPPING OIL SPILLS. Flower, Merlin. "Nuking the Oil Spill Nuclear Option Being Considered" CRUDE OIL PRICE Oil | Energy | Petroleum | Oil Price | Crude Oil Charts | Oil Price Forecast. 24 May 2010. Web. 25 Aug. 2010. . Some people fear that a nuclear explosion would set the oil spill on fire. But Soviet Russia has used subterranean nuclear blasts as much as 169 times and the number would add up to more than 1,000 if all the tests by different countries are taken into account. And since the explosion would be underwater and in the absence of oxygen there is no chance of the well burning up. But yes, an explosion close to the surface can contaminate the water due to radioactivity but this spill warrants an explosion underground. The oil is beneath the rock and since there is no air in an underground nuclear explosion, the energy released would overheat and melt the surrounding rock, thus shutting the spill.
