China plan nuclear bomb detonator to release Shale Gas

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China is planning to apply the same technology used to detonate a nuclear bomb over Hiroshima during the second world war to access its massive shale gas reserves in Sichuan province.

[China is] home to the largest reserves of shale gas on the planet – about 31.6 trillion cubic metres.

The problem is that 80 per cent of its deposits [in China] are located more than 3,500 metres (11,500 feet) below sea level, which is far beyond the range of hydraulic fracturing, the standard method for extraction.

Zhang and his team have dubbed their creation an “energy concentration rod” as it is able to control the release of explosive bolts of energy into an extremely short, precisely calculated period of time so as to maximise the fracturing effect of the shock waves.

It works by passing a strong electric current along a specially coated wire coil – encased by a metal shell – that is submerged in water. When the wire vaporises it produces a cloud of plasma – the extremely hot, electrically charged matter that makes up the sun – within which is a huge amount of energy just waiting to be released.

“The shock wave generated by the device can be as high as 200 megapascals at close range, which is expected to produce a fracture zone up to 50 metres in diameter,” Zhang said.

Source: Is China’s plan to use a nuclear bomb detonator to release shale gas in earthquake-prone Sichuan crazy or brilliant?

I guess my concern rolling around in the back of my head is coal mine fires.

The Centralia mine fire is a coal seam fire that has been burning underneath the borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania, United States, since at least May 27, 1962. The fire is suspected to be from deliberate burning of trash in a former strip mine, igniting a coal seam.

The fire is burning in underground coal mines at depths of up to 300 feet (90 m) over an 8-mile (13 km) stretch of 3,700 acres (15 km2). At its current rate, it could continue to burn for over 250 years.

The fire caused most of the town to be abandoned. The population dwindled from around 1,400 at the time the fire started to 10 in 2017, and most of the buildings have been leveled.

Source: Wikipedia: Centralia mine fire

So what if China ignites methane gas by using a nuclear thermal detonator deep underground? Does it have the potential of causing a century long fire deep underground? Will the blast of the methane gas explosion make the fire containment difficult to seal and contain?

Any Thoughts?

China is doing *this* when we’re supposed to be *reducing* our carbon footprint?

China and India have grown their carbon footprint by leaps and bounds during the last few years. They have overtaken the U.S. and Europe.

When it comes to cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, the world isn't just failing — we're stepping our foot on the gas pedal.

The big picture: On Wednesday, scientists reported in a series of studies that global emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels are likely to hit record levels in 2018. China and India are responsible for much of that growth, which is erasing optimism from just a few years ago that some countries' emissions might be peaking. Elsewhere, virtually no country is reducing emissions fast enough to balance out the growth.

Source: The countries that pushed carbon emissions to record levels

Maybe that part of China will go BOOM all at once, and we'll have enough dust in the air to turn back global warming ... ?

This was attempted in the US decades ago during Project Gasbuggy.

The project was a success in that it did release a ton of gas.

It was a failure in that the resulting gas was unusable because it was radioactive.