Interesting! I hadn't seen these newer case studies.
The chance of a nuke working depends a lot on the type of rock where they need to squeeze the pipe. I don't know anything about the formation in which this well is located but I can probably ask around and find out. I wonder what sort of formation surrounded the point of detonation in the Russian nuke? Too brittle and everything shatters, too soft and the same result occurs and in both cases your job just got a whole lot tougher. As much as I like big booms, the people making the decision will need to really study the rock before making such a decision.
You know what would be cool? If they raffled off the chance to press the dentonator button!
-Blast