Sure, for starters, but it’s hard to say what will and won’t be permafrost in 100 years, what with the non-trivial risk of catastrophic climate change and all. If the tank is built right, I think rolling, although unlikely, would still be one of the top 5 most likely failure modes; it is an easy enough flaw to fix.
Even municipal water towers, e.g., aren’t perfect spheres, and nobody expects those to fall off their columns and plow through downtown Suburb Beach.
You’re right to worry about global warming. But permafrost is soil, not ice. Permafrost means “always frozen soil”.
I suspect that there are regions of northern Canada where even a +20 degree warming would not get rid of the permafrost. Though the cost of getting to these places may be prohibitive? Anyone live in Canada and know about Nunavut?
I can verify that these places are accessible, and that the permafrost extends quite a bit farther south than one might expect. I used to live just south of the Yukon territory.
There are regular long-haul trucks that go up there all year round; if you go in winter, you can use an ice road to get to the very cold and remote places. Given the regular volume of traffic, I’d say the cost is not prohibitive. I can get precise figures if you’d like.
That’s pretty cool. As I said, −70C is thermodynamically very useful. A phase change heat-pipe could capture that cold from the winter, meaning that throughout the summer your system still only sees an outside temperature of −70C.
[grin] I wasn’t sure if those were sci-fi or not.
Sure, for starters, but it’s hard to say what will and won’t be permafrost in 100 years, what with the non-trivial risk of catastrophic climate change and all. If the tank is built right, I think rolling, although unlikely, would still be one of the top 5 most likely failure modes; it is an easy enough flaw to fix.
Even municipal water towers, e.g., aren’t perfect spheres, and nobody expects those to fall off their columns and plow through downtown Suburb Beach.
Far from being sci-fi, they are quite common (if we’re talking about the same thing): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator#History Common enough that they’re the main reason NASA has been targeted by green groups, even.
Cool!
You’re right to worry about global warming. But permafrost is soil, not ice. Permafrost means “always frozen soil”.
I suspect that there are regions of northern Canada where even a +20 degree warming would not get rid of the permafrost. Though the cost of getting to these places may be prohibitive? Anyone live in Canada and know about Nunavut?
I can verify that these places are accessible, and that the permafrost extends quite a bit farther south than one might expect. I used to live just south of the Yukon territory.
There are regular long-haul trucks that go up there all year round; if you go in winter, you can use an ice road to get to the very cold and remote places. Given the regular volume of traffic, I’d say the cost is not prohibitive. I can get precise figures if you’d like.
Thanks. Do you know what places have the coldest winter temperature?
Hits on google for “coldest place on earth” seem unanimous that it’s somewhere in Antarctica. Here’s an interesting newspaper article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/antarctica/6121866/Scientists-identify-coldest-place-on-earth.html
This sounds like it could be a lot of fun.
That’s pretty cool. As I said, −70C is thermodynamically very useful. A phase change heat-pipe could capture that cold from the winter, meaning that throughout the summer your system still only sees an outside temperature of −70C.
This place is much colder...
http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/inside-lng-tank.jpg
If you could only get permission to use it...