Results from a computer model run by the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center show the projected dispersal of smoke plumes from a surface-oil burn in the Gulf of Mexico. (Background map courtesy of Google.)
ON April 20, 2010, oil, gas, and cement exploded from the borehole of BP’s Macondo oil well on the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico, igniting the floating drilling rig Deepwater Horizon. The tragedy cost 11 crew members their lives, and the raging fire was quenched only when the rig eventually collapsed and sank. The well was, by then, leaking oil into the deep waters of the Gulf. Within days, Livermore scientists and engineers joined what became an international effort to plug the well and address the environmental damages caused by the massive spill, applying their expertise in engineering, modeling, and diagnostics to the largely unfamiliar arena of undersea oil-well technology.
The Laboratory’s contributions to the response involved a short-term atmospheric modeling effort and a longer effort to provide technical capabilities and peer review to the U.S. Coast Guard–led endeavor to plug the leak. The Department of Homeland Security’s Interagency Modeling and Atmospheric Assessment Center (IMAAC) provided plume predictions of the April 23 fire on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform. The National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center at Livermore, which serves as the IMAAC operations hub, forecast the particulates that might be released from planned surface-oil test burns—one of several methods used to remove spilled oil from the Gulf. The center predicted the extent of particulate dispersal and the areas in which air-quality standards might be exceeded.
A week after the explosion, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, at the direction of President Barack Obama, asked the national laboratories to quickly come up with ideas for spill mitigation and environmental remediation. He also requested that Sandia, Los Alamos, and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories send personnel to BP’s crisis center in Houston, Texas, to assist with response efforts. (See the box below.)
Thus began a sustained advisory and technical support role for the three laboratories, both at the crisis center and back at their home sites. Working with BP, other oil companies, and government agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the three laboratories drew on their expertise and experience in areas such as diagnostics and fluid dynamics to support work to stop the oil leak.
The leak was securely capped on July 15, 2010, and on September 19, operations at the well site were successfully completed. Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who had overseen spill containment and mitigation, declared the well “effectively dead.” From late April until September, up to 60 Livermore engineers and scientists provided oil-spill analysis and assistance under the coordination of Rob Sharpe, the deputy associate director for Science and Technology in Livermore’s Engineering Directorate. Los Alamos and Sandia provided comparable technical expertise.
“Support from the three labs focused on flow, capture, and containment,” says Sharpe. “We soon demonstrated that the labs could offer expertise and technology that were not in general commercially available to the drilling industry.” Bruce Warner, who led the Livermore task force assigned to assemble technical resources to aid the oil-spill effort, says, “Very quickly, it became clear that the national labs had the technology necessary to help. It was basically a self-selection process.”
Photo of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon in flames.
Fireboat crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon on April 21, 2010. An explosion in the Macondo well led to the catastrophic rig fire and oil leak. (Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard.)
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Fireboat crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon
Dengan url
http://sciencandtechnology.blogspot.com/2011/03/fireboat-crews-battle-blazing-remnants.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Fireboat crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Fireboat crews battle the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Post a Comment