Associated Risk in Utilizing Controlled Implosion to Securely Seal an Offshore Oil-Leaking Pipeline

This paper examines the potential risk of using controlled implosions as a new technique to securely seal an offshore leaking oil pipe. Massive amount of toxins and radioactive waste are produced by offshore oil leaks. These leaks can have negative impact on marine life and can threaten the stability of the ocean's ecosystem. In the past few years, there were several oil leak accidents that had left an overwhelming impact. Identifying potential impact and consequences to the proposed risk mitigation technique, to both the environment and the surrounding infra structure, is crucial to emergency response and crisis management teams. In order to equally quantify and communicate the probable impact of the proposed controlled implosion technique, a one-to-five risk / consequence assessment scale was created. The optimal explosive configuration is being investigated by the Mining Engineering Department at Missouri S&T. Their research outcome, as well as this one, can potentially mitigate the damage of an offshore oil leak disaster in the future.