Soviets Once Detonated Nuclear Bomb to Extinguish 1000+ Day Long Gas Well Fire

I really enjoy the videos published on YT on the Dark Footage/Dark Docs channel. There are so many eye-popping historical videos there related to science, warfare, space exploration, etc, that are not well known, and were sometimes intentionally suppressed (in many nations, including the United States) from the public.

In this instance, we have a case where the Soviet Union endured a horrendous, ecologically damaging accident in Uzbekistan during 1963 that resulted in an oil well fire that endured for nearly 3 years (1074 days!), and COULD NOT be put out, despite many different techniques/attempts that the Soviet drilling company brought to bear to extinguish the fire. No matter what the Soviets did, they could not put out this fire.



After various efforts using water, excavation, etc, Soviet scientists proposed the use of a controlled nuclear detonation to extinguish the burning well. The idea would be to drill a shaft adjacent to the oil well, and then detonate a (IIRC) 30+ Kiloton nuclear bomb, hoping to collapse the oil well and starve the fire of fuel and Oxygen.

Ultimately, the sub-surface detonation did have the desired effect; the explosion resulted in a shock wave that pinched off the burning oil well. After this success, the Soviets used this technique in several other instances, successfully extinguishing other industrial fires from oil/gas wells. In fact, after their positive results, the Soviets eventually designed a nuclear bomb that was specifically intended to be detonated below ground to collapse wells/shafts/tunnels.

I'm unsure if the US or other countries had attempted use of nuclear explosions in a similar capacity. Seems live a very high risk/high reward tactic, but in general it seems to have payed off for the Soviets. Fortunately this particular oil well was in an isolated region of desert in Uzbekistan. The Soviets did seem to have a higher tolerance level of the radiation impact of using nuclear explosions for non-warfare activities (the once used a nuke to excavate a reservoir!). Maybe these events lulled the Soviets into a lax and careless attitude on harnessing the power of the atom for energy, large-scale excavation, etc.

In any event, very interesting story!

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

As soon as I saw the title I was like "this guy watches dark docs"! This is a pretty interesting one as not only was it the first time anyone plugged a well with a nuclear device...but it became the standard and usually only way to close a well of that matter that's on fire.

originally posted by: RickyD
a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

As soon as I saw the title I was like "this guy watches dark docs"! This is a pretty interesting one as not only was it the first time anyone plugged a well with a nuclear device...but it became the standard and usually only way to close a well of that matter that's on fire.

Heck yeah Ricky! I think the first one I watched was a video they did on Tszar Bomba, and it was a really well done presentation, so I've been watching them ever since. Last night, I binged on their videos, watching 6-7 of them. This video on (I think) the largest riffled barrel gun ever developed in history ("Heavy Gustav", built by the Germans in WW2) was fascinating



Anything related to tech, military equipment, science, space exploration is guaranteed to pique my interest. Plus this series covers many facets of historical events too!

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

They do a bunch on military conspiracy stuff too as well as a lot of little known declassified quietly type subjects. One of my favorite was about the drone program in Vietnam during the war...yea drones in the 60s!

Love that channel been following it for years, lots of great stuff on there from 100% reality based to some pretty good legends/conspiracy stuff.

Highly recomend.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened
Dark Docs, and Dark5 are cool channels, also been watching Atomic Test Channel.

The U.S. has toyed with using nukes to excavate, but too much contamination.

Cool story!

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

Great channel, thought I'd drop this by as well.

The Derweze area is rich in natural gas. While drilling in 1971, Soviet geologists tapped into a cavern filled with natural gas. The ground beneath the drilling rig collapsed, leaving a large hole with a diameter of 70 metres (230 ft) at 40°15′10″N 58°26′22″E. The fire may have originated from a local Soviet decision to avoid poisonous gas discharge, by burning off the gas,[3][4] and while geologists had hoped the fire would consume the fuel in a few days, the gas is still burning nearly fifty years later.

Locals have named the crater the "Door to Hell".

a reply to: Bigburgh

!!!!!


Gehenna

Interesting stuff. There are few places with eternal fires in USA also, i guess they dont want to nuke them .


10 Places That Are Always on Fire

a reply to: Bigburgh

WOW. I thought it was incredible that the oil fire in Uzbekistan burned for 3 years.

The Darvaza crater is still burning after 50 years?!

Baffling how much gas there must be in that cavern.

originally posted by: Kenzo

Interesting stuff. There are few places with eternal fires in USA also, i guess they dont want to nuke them .


10 Places That Are Always on Fire