Comment by bochoh
1 day ago
In a cold climate, I would expect burying it to use the ground as a natural insulator. Why was an above ground design chosen?
Specifically, does the need for heavy insulation and the active heating of the sand make the ground a less effective or even problematic insulator? Could excavating and building a below-ground foundation for a high-temperature device like this be more complex and expensive than an above-ground silo? How would permafrost conditions affect this design?
> Why was an above ground design chosen?
Because digging is expensive and there's plenty of land. More efficient to use the budget to build a bigger structure than to build a smaller one and dig down. Bigger structure also gives you better insulation (surface area compared to volume decreases non-linearly with increased volume).
Also, digging in sand is easy. But blowing up granite isn't. The Ice age stripped a way a lot of soil in Finland.
We’re pretty accustomed to building underground in Finland. You can find all sorts of English-language articles about it.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/helsinkis-underground-c...