Comment by mauvehaus
5 hours ago
They what?! Can we please get a link to this to read more?!
And yes, I have the same Google as you, but I'd love a link to your preferred telling of the tale of how the Soviets nuked a gas well fire just a couple years before I was born.
Wikipedia has an article about it[0]. Gas had been leaking for three years before they were able to use a nuke to seal the well. Estimated that it was burning 12 million m3 of gas daily.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtabulak_gas_field
Interesting, however that was 1966:
> the explosive was detonated at a depth of 1,500 m (1,640 yd) on 30 September 1966. The hole that the explosive was lowered into had also been sealed with cement so as to prevent atmospheric radioactive contamination.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Explosions_for_the_Nat...
> The last nuclear explosion by the Program 7, codenamed Rubin-1, was performed in Arkhangelsk Oblast on September 6, 1988.
Although there is no separate page for that.
I recall we were seriously talking about using one during the early days of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. For a variety of reasons it wouldn’t have worked in that instance.
[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-soviets-nuked-gas-well-f...