Originally Posted by
Petit-Lion
How deep is it? First guesses were about 100 meters. Then figures like '500 meters' were floated around. And now this 800m "for the most sensitive things". Ok, nobody knows. And nobody knows how deep can one or several MOPs reach, either.
I'm curious, how hot is it down there? The average geothermal gradient is 3 K/100 m below the surface in Europe (
Wikipedia). Therefore about ISA+24 at 800 meters. Could be different under this mountain, a geologist would know. And you have a big plant with hundreds centrifuges, each requiring tens of kW of electricity. Where goes all this heat? And where does all the electricity come from? Maybe it's easier to target the nearest powerplant and/or the numerous huge exhaust stacks?
IMO it can't be this deep
and this big at the same time...
I don't think temperature increase with depth it's as straight forward as you state; there can be a negative temperature gradient. From Wikipedia:
Negative geothermal gradients occur where temperature decreases with depth. This occurs in the upper few hundreds of meters near the surface. Because of the low
thermal diffusivity of rocks, deep underground temperatures are hardly affected by diurnal or even annual surface temperature variations. At depths of a few meters, underground temperatures are therefore similar to the annual average surface temperature. At greater depths, underground temperatures reflect a long-term average over past climate, so that temperatures at the depths of dozens to hundreds of meters contain information about the climate of the last hundreds to thousands of years. Depending on the location, these may be colder than current temperatures due to the colder weather close to the last
ice age, or due to more recent climate change.