I just dont understand why they didnt dig deeper, heck south afrika has gold mines that go 4km deep, its not so hard to just keep digging deeper, is there any credible reason why they didnt dig deeper?

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 22 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Serious answer is the deeper you dig, the longer and wider your ventillation shafts need to be, and your fans need to be way more powerful. It will also be naturally hotter and wetter the deeper you go (giggity). This is fine for mines where you are running multicombos and dozers, they are built for that. But cascade enrichment centrifuges generate a ton of excess heat, require clean, climate controlled environment, are super sensitive to vibration and shocks, and require a fair amount of industrial computer power which is also rather delicate.

You simply can't dissipate this heat to atmosphere like a surface facility without moving hundreds of cubic metres of air per minute along massivelong vent shafts which, ideally, take the shortest, straightest path to the surface, and are a huge vulnerability to attack like a death star.

And if you dehumidify the area, which is a must, you generate more heat, AND water, which needs to be pumped to the surface somehow.

So there is a depth where you reach diminishing returns, sure, the bombs can't get you, but the heat and moisture will.

[–] obinice@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I'm not disagreeing with you, but one of the major issues you mention seems to be moving huge amounts of air in order to cool and dehumidify deep underground.

Why not use more efficient technologies to accomplish this, like heat pumps? Dehumidification systems exist also. You'd still need air flow of course for breathing, but that would be significantly less than is needed for everything else you described.

It would be expensive and complex vs a hole with a fan, sure, but we're talking about building fancy ultra expensive secret nuclear facilities anyway, and if the added cost can make it impervious or at least very resistant to missile attack, the added cost seems worth it.

[–] dwindling7373@feddit.it 5 points 3 days ago

If you draw that in paint we will have gone full circle.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

You also make it much more obvious the deeper you go which is sorta not awesome for sites that are intended to be secret.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Maybe you could have a liquid-cooled or even a phase-chane heat exchanger, but I don't know if that's even possible. Maybe it is. Maybe someone, somewhere has done it before? Would be interesting to look into.

[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 15 points 4 days ago

Balrogs

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Arms get tired of digging, lot of work

[–] einfach_orangensaft@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago

rebuilding all that shit every few years after they get bombed is also a lot of work tho