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AP) -- A mission to the bottom of the sea to try to avert a wider environmental disaster progressed early Friday as crews said a 100-ton concrete-and-steel box was close to being placed over a blown-out well on the Gulf floor in an unprecedented attempt to capture gushing oil.
Douglas Peake, the first mate of the supply boat that brought the box to the site, confirmed a radio transmission from the nearby vessel lowering the device that said the device would be in position over the well soon.
The transmission said undersea robots were placing buoys around the main oil leak to act as markers to help line up the 40-foot box.
A crane late Thursday lowered the containment vessel designed to collect as much as 85 percent of the oil spewing into the Gulf and funnel it up to a tanker. Eventually the crane would give way to underwater robots that will secure the contraption over the main leak at the bottom, a journey that would take hours.
A steel pipe will be installed between the top of the box and tanker. If all goes well, the whole structure could be operating by Sunday.
Douglas Peake, the first mate of the supply boat that brought the box to the site, confirmed a radio transmission from the nearby vessel lowering the device that said the device would be in position over the well soon.
The transmission said undersea robots were placing buoys around the main oil leak to act as markers to help line up the 40-foot box.
A crane late Thursday lowered the containment vessel designed to collect as much as 85 percent of the oil spewing into the Gulf and funnel it up to a tanker. Eventually the crane would give way to underwater robots that will secure the contraption over the main leak at the bottom, a journey that would take hours.
A steel pipe will be installed between the top of the box and tanker. If all goes well, the whole structure could be operating by Sunday.
Giant box close to being over oil-spewing well
(AP) -- A mission to the bottom of the sea to try to avert a wider environmental disaster progressed early Friday as crews said a 100-ton concrete-and-steel box was close to being placed over a blown-out well on the Gulf floor in an unprecedented attempt to capture gushing oil.
phys.org
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