At 600 meters underground, the heart of the Santiago well beats almost extinct.
Located in the town of Caborana, in the council of Aller, in the central area of Asturias, it is one of the few coal mines that are still active in Spain, although its closure is scheduled in the short term.
The SOMA-UGT union has been trying for years to prevent the life of the well from shutting down forever since in 2010 the EU ordered the cessation of coal extraction and in 2018 the dismantling of the coal mines.
The latest proposal to revitalize the facilities has been to offer this space to the Government and the Principality of Asturias due to the conditions it meets to preserve the covid vaccine developed by the Pfizer and BioNTech consortium, a drug that needs to be stored at extremely low temperatures and which will begin to be supplied in Spain on December 27.
The cage, as the miners call the forklift that accesses the mine, descends slowly, at a speed that allows it to be upright and unrestrained.
Floor by floor you can glimpse for a few seconds the 11 floors from which the more than 100 kilometers of galleries start.
Those closest to the cage are those in the best state of conservation.
These sections, with vaulted ceilings, are where SOMA-UGT proposes to locate the vaccine.
The main attraction of the Santiago well for this purpose, according to the union, is that it already has infrastructure to store the doses and would only need an adaptation.
José Luis Alperi, general secretary of the union and an engineer by profession, explains that when the mine was active, the extraction of coal required the injection of liquid nitrogen at temperatures close to 70 degrees below zero to avoid its self-combustion.
The same temperature at which the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must be stored, which will be the first to be distributed in Spain.
“Nitrogen was introduced from outside the mine through a compressed air network that ran through the entire structure of the well and is still preserved.
We would only need to have cryogenic cabinets that take advantage of this gas to freeze the vaccine.
Each freezer could hold 7,500 doses.
Five million long-term vaccines if we take into account the size of the well ”, he assures.
Other characteristics that Alperi highlights about the mine, which belongs to the Hunosa energy company, is its level of security, since it has only one access, and the location for its distribution.
The Santiago well is located 24 minutes from Oviedo and 48 minutes from Asturias airport.
“It may seem new or complex to understand because nothing similar has been done in Spain, but it would only take one or two months to prepare it and it would mean a great saving.
In countries like the United States or Holland they have built
freezer farms
for their conservation.
In others, like Finland, they have used their Cold War warehouses to house medical supplies.
It would be a crime if the vaccine arrived and we had no place to store it or that we did not value this idea for the future ”, explains the engineer.
The Principality of Asturias, which together with the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Health were the three recipients of this offer, has received the proposal with interest and gratitude, but for the moment they affirm that they are covered.
“We have bought an ULT freezer capable of holding 200,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
It will be located at a safe point that we cannot reveal, but the progressive supply to the eight health areas that make up Asturias will be guaranteed ”, explain sources from the Principality's Health Council.
“We value the offer of the Santiago well positively, especially in these moments of sanitary crisis.
If more capacity is necessary, we will study it ”.
Surrounded by a mining neighborhood and houses dotted with colors among the typical green of the north, this mining shaft still supports the family economy of 140 workers.
The mining basins are one of the areas with the highest unemployment rate in Asturias, over 19%.
Alperi assures that they will continue trying to prevent the mine from being forgotten.
“We work and live here.
It is a matter of self-love.
If it's not for the vaccine, we hope there will be more opportunities.
We already offered ourselves as a warehouse for sanitary material after we experienced the shortage of masks, as a cider press for years or as a data processing center, ”says the union member, who turns off his helmet light when he goes outside, but not his illusion to see “el
pozu” resuscitate.
Information about the coronavirus
- Here you can follow the last hour on the evolution of the pandemic
- Restrictions search engine: What can I do in my municipality?
- This is how the coronavirus curve evolves in the world
- Download the tracking application for Spain
- Guide to action against the disease
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