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One can compare such permanent fires with a dragon that lives near a village and eats people from time to time. And every time, it takes a reward from a village
by krasin 8y ago
One can compare such permanent fires with a dragon that lives near a village and eats people from time to time. And every time, it takes a reward from a village chief to find a hero and kill the dragon.
Why doesn't any of the states with coal fires offer a monetary prize to stop such fires? Put money on the table, and a hero (in a form of a robotic firefighting startup) will come.
- sandworm101 8y agoIt cannot be fixed with robots. Thousands of R2D2s running into mines with fire extinguishers wouldn't make a dent. These are fires spread throughout many square-miles, cubic-miles, of permeable rock. Quenching them must involve external containment. Massive concrete domes/walls surrounding the burning material. Then you must wait many many years for temperatures to cool. It is a multi-decade project imho.
- cpeterso 8y agoThe best time to start such a project would have been decades ago. The second best time is today. It could be a good jobs program and perhaps the concrete barriers could be built as functional structures for the local community?
- callalex 8y agoWe can't even get government funding for less CO2-heavy power plants, let alone putting out fires that don't directly harm anyone with an unknown success rate.
- honestoHeminway 8y agoHas anyone tried to do the cooling symstem approach? Aka, pump in water, frack, and cool the site down until the fire is non-substainable?
- krasin 8y agoLet's not overfocus on the word robot in my statement, as it was not the point I was making.