You might think there's an energy problem or sumthin' if you think you gotta go after THIS kind of deposit:
Drilling Near Nuclear Blast Cavity Called Risky Business
Residue of '69 Colorado test is best left alone, say many in the area who benefit from oil and gas.
BATTLEMENT MESA, Colo. — On a bright fall afternoon 36 years ago, the Atomic Energy Commission and a Texas oil company detonated a 40-kiloton nuclear device inside an 8,000-foot shaft on a high meadow, an effort to crack into a bounty of natural gas trapped in a dense subterranean rock formation.
Here on Colorado's energy-rich Western Slope, the nuclear experiment yielded mixed results. A rich lode of gas was indeed shaken out of its rock casing, but the gas that rushed to the surface was too radioactive to be commercially useful.
Federal officials assured the community that the Rulison test site, named after a nearby community, was safe. Still, they forbade oil or gas drilling on 40 acres surrounding the blast. Last year, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission added another half a mile to the federal off-limits zone.
But now, another Texas energy company has proposed drilling within the half-mile zone. The company, Presco, says it will extract the gas using a nonnuclear process called hydraulic fracing, which like the original experiment is designed to shatter underground rock and tap into embedded stores of natural gas. The company says this can be done without disturbing the radioactive material that remains buried in the blast cavity.
Presco, which is based in The Woodlands, Texas, north of Houston, insists there is no danger. One company official said that the original blast cavity was so stable "it would even be safe to drill into the cavity itself."
But the thought of shaking the earth here again has many residents of surrounding Garfield County greatly concerned about what lies sleeping beneath the ground. The residue from the 1969 blast contains some of the most radioactive and toxic substances on Earth, including tritium, carbon-14 and krypton-85.
"Let's see, you drill a hole, put a nuclear bomb in it, explode the bomb, then come back and frac it. Real smart," said Scott Brynildson, tapping the side of his head through a white straw cowboy hat. "I think it's very dangerous. They ought to leave a bad thing alone."
latimes.com |
