X-Message-Number: 2672
Date: 31 Mar 94 01:45:33 EST
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: CRYONICS Re: CryoSpan's Storage Risks

To: CRYONET


In CRYONET MSG 2669, Ron Selkovitch writes:

> If I understand you correctly, the Cryospan plan is to first reinforce the
>building and, later build the underground vault.

    No, the plan is to build the vault as soon as possible, to ensure patient
safety.  Don't forget, to us, patients are extremely helpless and fragile,
living human beings.  If at all feasible, they must be protected from the
worst calamities possible.  A collapsed and burning building will not harm
the vault or the patients.  A temporary structure could soon be erected over
top.  In addition, placing the dewars below ground level will enable us to
access them (for those who haven't seen them, they are 10 feet tall!) more
cheaply and easily.  Instead of cutting a hole in the roof, and having to
move a dewar under the hole and use a crane through the hole, we will build a
rolling gantry crane to position over any dewar in the vault.  Therefore, we
wish to get the vault into place before we have any whole body patients. 
Certainly before we have many.
    For the building retrofit, the engineers will only supply ideas and
drawings.  It is expected that we will be able to implement these by
ourselves over the following months.


>Can you detail both the schedule and the funding plans for the two phases ?

    At this time, I don't wish to detail scheduling or funding requirements. 
I am rewriting CryoSpan's business plan to take into account these latest
ideas and plans.  When this business plan is finished and sent to those who
may be interested in helping to fund CryoSpan, some of its information will
probably be posted here since it will then be semi-public.


>Wont the underground vault be vunerable to flooding, and will that require
>availability of electricity for pumping the water out.

    Our facility is located on semi-desert land, not near any flood plane. 
The soil around the vault has practically zero water content and the water
table here is very far below the surface.  The water main in the street is
over 100 feet from where the vault will be.  The top of the vault will be
designed to be slightly above the surface of the concrete floor of the
building with a raised and sealed lip.  The steel plated top will be sloped
slightly to shed any water which would come from the sprinkler system in the
event of a building fire.  There will be a sump pump sitting at the bottom of
the vault.  The monitoring and automatic filling equipment, and an emergency
generator with gasoline supply to run the equipment and the sump pump, will
be housed in a small modular vault above ground.

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