What MIT scientists?
There is a rather substantial difference between opening a valve in a tank and using explosives to rip a large hole in it. The total potential energy of the compressed gas in the tank is the same either way (of course), but the amount of time over which that energy is released is radically different.
The formula for the energy of a compressed gas is the pressure x the volume. If we specify the units as joules for energy (E), bar for pressure (P}, and liters for volume (V) then we get:
E = P x V x 450
Thus for a 240bar 12L tank:
240 x 12 x 450 = 1,242,000 joules
You could envision that as the energy required to boil 3.5 liters of water or the energy of 300 grams (roughly 2 hand grenades) of TNT exploding. The only difference is the speed of the energy release.
It was reported that 5m of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline are missing at the rupture site. Let's use our formula to see how much energy was contained in that 5m section.
The internal diameter of the pipeline which was pressurized to 105 bar was 115.3cm and thus the volume for a 5m length was π x 57.65 x 57.65 x 500 = 5220 liters.
105 x 5220 x 450 = 246.6 million joules
This is approximately the energy in 60 kilos of TNT.