Not all biobanks will need daily access to samples. Here comes a cost effect alternative – storage in permafrost regions. ZEIT magazine has an article about “Mine 3“, a former coal mine in the Arctic. Already the first 10,000 samples have been stored there at -3,5 degree Celsius. BBC and Wikipedia have also information about Svalbard Global Seed Vault
SGSV will be built by hollowing out a cave in a sandstone mountain on Spitsbergen Island. The bank will have dual blast-proof doors with motion sensors, two airlocks, and walls of steel-reinforced concrete one metre thick. Seeds will be wrapped in aluminium foil to keep out moisture. There will be no full-time staff, but the vault’s relative inaccessibility make it easy to track human activity.
