Why the USSR Used a Nuclear Bomb to Stop a Gas Fire

In 1966, a 30-kiloton underground nuclear explosion extinguished the unstoppable Urta-Bulak gas well fire in Uzbekistan after 1,064 days. Here is the hand-drawn engineering breakdown of how deep rock flow squeezed the pipe shut. In 1963, Well No. 11 at the Urta-Bulak gas field erupted at 300 atmospheres of pressure. Water, chemical foams, and conventional explosives failed for nearly three years. Soviet engineers lowered a nuclear device 1.5 km underground to use plastic rock deformation instead of blowing the flame out. 👇 Subscribe to Groundwork for weekly engineering breakdowns: https://www.youtube.com/@GroundworkSh...\_confirmation=1 🎬 Watch our full Megaengineering Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/@GroundworkSh... CHAPTERS: 0:00 The Unstoppable Urta-Bulak Gas Well Fire 0:22 Blowout at Well No. 11 (300 Atmospheres) 1:12 12 Million Cubic Meters of Gas Burning Daily 1:42 Extreme Reservoir Pressure Dynamics 2:24 Why Water and Explosives Failed 3:22 The Underground Hydraulic Sealing Concept 3:46 How Deep Rock Flows Under Nuclear Pressure 4:28 Pinched Shut: Deformation of the Steel Pipe 4:45 The Clay Layer That Made the Nuclear Seal Work 5:31 Directional Drilling Toward a Burning Well 6:26 22 Seconds: Nuclear Detonation and Flame Extinction 7:04 The Previous Attempts That Failed 8:19 Why Nobody Tried Nuclear Sealing in the Gulf SOURCES: • M. D. Nordyke, "The Soviet Program for Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Explosions" (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, UCRL-ID-124410, 1996) • World Nuclear Association & USGS Geological Archives 🔔 New engineering breakdowns every week. Subscribe for more of what holds things up! 📩 Business inquiries: murodbest19@gmail.com #urtabulak #nuclearexplosion #engineering #geology #gaswellfire #howitworks #megaprojects