We also took a look at the BP's first massive oil containment dome, which the company plans to lower 5, 000 feet below the sea to plug up the leak.

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We understood -- and I think BP was somewhat out front on the notion that the chances of the containment dome working were, I think they said, a one-in-three chance.

WHITEHOUSE: 5/10/10: White House Press Briefing

Some in the oil industry questioned why it took the company so long to come up with the idea of a containment dome, and why it didn't have one ready to use.

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As many as 15 percent of the 5, 000 previously approved welds in the reactor's auxiliary plumbing, containment dome and spent-fuel cooling systems were X-rayed and found to be defective due to air pockets, poor soldiering and heat damage.

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The containment dome of the first reactor is designed to withstand pressures of only 7 pounds per square inch, compared with 50 psi in American-style reactors, leaving the Juragua dome exponentially weaker than an American reactor even in the event that the dome functions perfectly as designed, an unlikely prospect in the current situation.

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As I understand it, the dome now sits several hundred yards away from the active well, as they seek solutions for dealing with the hydrates that have formed inside the containment dome that have made what they had hoped would be something that could cap and vacuum the oil, make it -- that that would be successful.

WHITEHOUSE: 5/10/10: White House Press Briefing

The bright yellow dome of the steel containment vessel at Unit 4, Fukushima Daiishi nuclear power plant (FDI) is clearly visible amid the pulverized remains of the building in a new video released by the Tokyo Electric Power Company.

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