Page 40 - Dinner Plate News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Irreversible damage, unquote, and make the leak much worse. >> however, i mean, the -- even if that's the case, that's still only for a finite period of time because the killing of the well, the drilling of the relief wells is still happening. >> that's right. that's the gold standard. relief wells almost always work. however, they never work on the first try. so don't get your hopes up. when they try to hit that dinner plate at a distance of three miles below sea level, they may miss in which case you have to redraw the drill, seal it with cement and redrill again. and that process has gone o...

The end in sight, possibly the beginning of the end in sight. this as the obama administration responds to a judicial repeal of its drilling moratorium with a new moratorium. but we begin with the new capping effort. the new cap painstakingly lowered throughout the day, as we mentioned, lowered the last 40 feet into place just a short time ago. if all goes according to plan, phrases that have been repeated for the last 2 1/2 months, it will be latched shut tonight with testing to follow, ending the surface collection efforts to determine whether the new cap can withstand the pressure. keep you...

A sure bet? >> reporter: i don't know expert we spoke to said yes. the tricky part is when will it work. he says it's like hitting a target the size of a dinner plate while drilling through a mile of rock. if you miss you have to keep trying to hit the target nearly 18,000 feet below the water service. a relief well stopped a blowout 150 miles off australia's coast. there you see video. it took a whole month and five tries to finally hit the right spot. in case this doesn't work or takes too long, other options are being considered in the gulf. one possibility, sucking the water to nearby plat...

Second, safety. relief wells can blow out just like an exploratory well, so opponents say requiring them would double your risk of an accident, like the one we're seeing in the gulf right now. one professor of petroleum engineering told us, well, do you require a we levy well for the relief well, where does it end, don? >> where does it end? you know what, patricia, everyone seems to be betting that relief well will stop what's going on in the gulf of mexico. but is that really true? is that -- should we be -- i don't know, basing our hopes on this relief well? >> well, one of the experts that...

Long-term solution relies on drilling relief wells and killing it. as a neuro surgeon, it's annoying when someone says it isn't brain surgery, but it's close. tom foreman is here with the details. tom? >> thanks, sanjay. drilling down. look at this as we dive down here and contemplate what we're talking about. you're going through all of this, all in the hopes of hitting something about the size of a dinner plate. that's how big the leaking pipe is all the way down where they're trying to hit it. that's a massive technological challenge. so what if they miss? then what? well, for starters, the...