[honestjohn]

"A mile underground" and "cheap" don't seem to go together.

[hinkley]

Has everyone forgotten when we had an oil well leaking .8 miles underwater and we couldn’t do shit to stop it?

[honestjohn]

Are you talking about me or the article?

[hinkley]

The article. Working a mile down is at the limits of our capabilities. In an emergency situation it’s nearly unobtanium. Like Kernighan’s Law for engineering.

[honestjohn]

Yeah, it seems nuts. Nuclear submarines have proven our ability to operate a small reactor a km underwater, but under land is much harder.

[hinkley]

But at 1 atm.

If the pressure vessel fails they autoscram the reactor don’t they? I mean assuming they didn’t get hit with a torpedo.