From Reuters, December 10:
Some of the rooms in Korea Superfreeze Inc’s coldest warehouse are so frigid that a cup of warm water thrown into one will immediately turn into snow.
Located 65 km (40 miles) below Seoul and boasting temperatures frostier than an Antarctic winter, the facility would be the best, perhaps only, place in South Korea suitable for bulk storage of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, says company CEO Kim Jin-ha.
“As soon as we heard about the Pfizer vaccine, we started getting ready... other options wouldn’t work,” Kim told Reuters, adding that the warehouse’s use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to keep temperatures cool trumped electricity.
Warehouses which use electricity would have difficulty maintaining the -70 degrees Celsius (-94 F) required by the vaccine for storage and carry the risk of the temperature rising during a power blackout, he said.
The company, which is backed by Goldman Sachs and SK Holdings Co Ltd, has been in talks with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency since early November and while nothing is yet decided, expectations are high it will land a contract.
The agency has asked Korea Superfreeze to provide plans and cost estimates for storing and distributing vaccines, including how it would handle a scenario where vaccines would be shipped to 260 different locations, Kim said....
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