Amazing we hadn't figured this earlier, before pondering moon and Mars bases: Fort Cousteau. 135 million dollars to stick a laboratory sixty feet / 20m underwater. We already have whole fleets of submarines silent-running around the 300m level but of course these're specialised for military and, well.
They're proposing offshore Caribbean. That can just pull energy from the power-grid. Although, recapture of energy from a local nuke-plant should work. At 20m below there's even room for a cooling-tower. Better than a submarine anyway. How about Dogger Bank...?
To keep the pressure consistent they're building only two stories. 3 bar at bottom. (Corresponds to 40 km over Venus' surface. Below the cloud-deck; hazy, 150 C. About right for Uranium City.)
For their setup I'm curious on a few details. For one: at only sixty feet below, why don't they just pipe up a lift or even a stairwell to the ocean surface, and have incoming seacraft dock there. Basic stone and waterproof concrete, in a circular-tower model, should keep the ocean away. Hook the lab on the seafloor to that.
I do get why they don't build the thing in a cenote under Yucatan: they want to study the real Caribbean, not the exotic environment of the deep caves.
And how's the air-pressure in the lab. I do understand how the air-pressure will be high to keep the whole structure from imploding. The article implies it's higher-pressure further down within the structure itself - it'll be a two-story building. Hmm. So they have airlocks between stories?
If they have a tower to the surface, of course we will need an airlock for that. Somewhere. Maybe the tower's floor is airlocked, from above.
They got a plan for earthquakes or Cat-4s?
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