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It's actually already taken care of. Basically, most of them are beyond what the current technology can achieve.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_seam_fire

This is a good read. So the one mentioned in OP may work for some but it may be only useful for very limited set of these fires. We know too little about things under the surface. I'd say we have zero chance to conquer them until we can have a deep earth CT (just like CT of your brain).

60M for a technology which would be the future, yes. 60M for something only works for a few limited cases, probably not.



"It's actually already taken care of."

It is? A big coal fire that burned on a area of 80ha last time they checked in 1983 estimated to burn up to an area of 1500 ha is only priority number 2 to the agency. So to me the problem seems far from being taken care of.

"The last detailed study of the fire was in 1983 ... GAI found that the fire was spread over almost 80 hectares, and estimated it could eventually burn close to 1,500 hectares. "


How far along are we with ground penetrating radar?

I’d imagine if they struggle to find tunnels dug under borders of high tech countries that they will probably struggle with these.


You could look via seismographs and small explosions, as is done for some kinds of resource exploration.

Plain old drilling is pretty effective though.




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