National Labs Work on Oil Blowout

The Energy Department has joined the all out federal effort to help stop the almost month-long oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said scientists from the department's national labs have been working with the operations experts at the BP command center on ways to determine what is happening inside the blowout preventer atop the damaged wellhead, which was supposed to stop the flow of oil once the rig exploded and sank.

He said the labs are using their supercomputers to assist with imaging and sampling of the seafloor, measuring the pressure in the blowout preventer stack, and analyzing the riser structure and fluid flows.

Since this mess has been going on since April 20 and has befouled the Gulf with millions of gallons of oil, I think it is time for all of us in the media to stop referring to it as a mere spill, which makes it sound benign. That's why I used the word gusher.

This is not a case of spilled milk.