Deep Borehole Demonstration Centre launches

GeoDrilling International, March 6, 2023

Deep Borehole Demonstration Centre launches

The new Deep Borehole Demonstration Centre was officially launched at Waste Management Symposia 2023. The Centre, which is an independent, non-profit, science-driven organization – funded on a multinational, public-private-partnership basis, that aims to advance the maturity of the safety case for deep borehole disposal and the technical readiness levels of the disposal concept.

Phoenix, AZ — The new Deep Borehole Demonstration Center officially launches today at Waste Management Symposia 2023. The Center is an independent, nonprofit, science-driven organization – funded on a multinational, public-private-partnership basis – that aims to advance the maturity of the safety case for deep borehole disposal and the technical readiness levels of the disposal concept.  

The Launch Executive Director of the Center is Ted Garrish, former Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy.  Garrish said: “I am proud to have been asked by the international nuclear community to take a lead in responding to the clear global demand for a deep borehole demonstration facility.  The International Energy Agency forecasts a need to double the world’s nuclear capacity between 2020 and 2050 if we are to achieve global net zero, yet the ‘unsolved problem’ of waste disposal continues to be a major barrier to public support for nuclear power. The steps we are announcing today represent a major advance for one of the safest and most cost-effective solutions to that problem: deep borehole disposal.” 

Work at the Center kicked off in February 2023, when it worked with industry partners Deep Isolation, Amentum and NAC International to conduct a first series of tests in Cameron, Texas. The tests demonstrated the compatibility of a newly designed waste canister for Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) spent nuclear fuel with standard lifting equipment for the oil and gas industry for use in deep borehole disposal operations.

As Garrish explained, “The tests this month were an important step in showing how we can combine standard, mature technologies from both the nuclear and the oil and gas sectors – but this is just the start of a multi-year, multi-stakeholder program plan of projects that will cumulatively deliver an end-to-end (and entirely non-radioactive) demonstration of the on-site deep borehole disposal process.  I am delighted to be publishing that plan today and look forward to working with our members and stakeholders to refine and implement it.”

The Board of Directors of the Center come from Deep Isolation, Southern Company, and The National Radiation Protection Institute in Czechia, reflecting the public-private-partnership and international nature of this nonprofit initiative.   Liz Muller, CEO of Deep Isolation and Chair of the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center’s Board, said at the launch,

“At last year’s Waste Management Symposium, Deep Isolation presented new research showing that eight-out-of-ten leaders across the international radwaste sector want to see more international collaboration on borehole disposal, with an end-to-end demonstration being their number one priority.  Since then, we have been working with the international community to develop a practical response to that demand, and I am delighted that today we are able to announce the results: the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center.”

Initial members of the Center include organizations representing waste disposal interests in nine countries, from both the public and private sectors.   This includes the ERDO Association.  Formed by the waste management organizations from seven European countries, ERDO published in 2022 the results of a project that found that deep borehole disposal is a technologically feasible and potentially cost-efficient solution for high-level or long-lived intermediate level waste from Croatia, Slovenia, Denmark, The Netherlands, and Norway, and recommended that the key next steps are a full-scale demonstration of site characterization, drilling, waste emplacement and borehole sealing, combined with development of a comprehensive safety case. The Deep Borehole Demonstration Center responds to that recommendation.

The work of the Center will be informed by an independent Advisory Committee, currently being established to ensure its work is transparent to the local community and subject to scientific peer review.  The Chairman of the Advisory Committee, Professor Neil Chapman (Emeritus Professor of environmental geology, risk assessment and radioactive waste management at the University of Sheffield) said, “I look forward to working with the local community, my fellow scientists and international policymakers in the Advisory Committee to act as a ‘critical friend’ in support of the Deep Borehole Disposal Center.  It is doing important work to explore and broaden our radioactive waste disposal options, and I welcome its commitment to transparency and scientific scrutiny.”

Stop by Booth 530 at the Waste Management Symposia to learn more about the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center.  

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Learn more about the Board Members and the Center’s Launch Executive Director

Read the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center’s Strategic Plan

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About the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center

The nonprofit Deep Borehole Demonstration Center was established to provide interested entities and governments worldwide with an independent organization through which to commission projects that characterize and advance the technical readiness of deep borehole nuclear waste disposal technologies.

Press Contact

info@deepboreholedemo.org

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BERKELEY — Deep Isolation, a leading innovator in nuclear waste storage and disposal solutions, will offer insights into its updated waste canister design and discuss the new Deep Borehole Demonstration Center at Waste Management Symposia 2023.

CEO Liz Muller will kick off the company’s WM2023 presence at the Women of Waste Management panel at 6:30 p.m. MST on February 28. Leaders will share their thoughts and ideas about the impact women make in the nuclear industry. 

“I am looking forward to participating in this panel with such a group of knowledgeable women. The nuclear industry has made significant progress toward gender inclusivity, but there is still more to do”, says Liz Muller, CEO at Deep Isolation.

Muller will also speak together with Ted Garrish at the Demo Zone, an event at 10:00 a.m. MST on 1 March where the two speakers will show pictures of the first tests conducted and discuss the launch of the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center.

On March 1 at 1:00 p.m., Dr. Ethan Bates, Director of Systems Engineering, will present a paper outlining the history of interest in deep borehole demonstrations, and the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center’s early technical objectives.

“The ultimate goal is for the Center to host progressively advanced deep borehole experiments and tests, ultimately leading up to an end-to-end (non-radioactive) demonstration of the deep borehole disposal technology,” Dr. Bates said.

Work at the Center kicked off in February 2023, when it worked with industry partners to conduct a first series of tests that demonstrated the compatibility of a newly designed waste canister for PWR spent nuclear fuel with standard lifting equipment for the oil and gas industry for use in deep borehole disposal operations.

Also March 1 at 1:30 p.m., Senior Engineer Matt Waples will discuss Deep Isolation’s progress designing canisters for radioactive waste transport, storage, and disposal in deep boreholes.

Deep Isolation has spent the past several years collaborating with its partner and shareholder, NAC International (NAC), on a canister designed for the deep geological disposal of pressurized water reactor fuel assemblies in boreholes. In the past year, significant strides have been made to enhance canister system safety, lifting and handling operations, manufacturability, and economic viability.  

“Our work with NAC refining and simplifying the canister design and manufacturing process has provided valuable insights that are expected to significantly reduce borehole repository costs while maintaining rigorous safety standards,” Waples said.

At last year’s Waste Management Symposium, Deep Isolation and NAC presented the preliminary design of the borehole disposal canister, demonstrating confidence in the structural, thermal, shielding, and criticality safety analyses for loaded canisters in storage, transportation, and disposal configurations. Since then, the UK government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero announced on February 8 2023 grant funding for Deep Isolation to partner with Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (NAMRC) to develop a UK supply chain for Deep Isolation’s disposal canister.  NAMRC will manufacture two Technology Readiness Level 7 disposal canisters, for laboratory testing in the UK and more extensive field testing at the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center in Texas.

Stop by Booth 530 at the Waste Management Symposia to learn more about Deep Isolation.

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About the Deep Isolation

Deep Isolation specializes in deep borehole disposal of nuclear waste. We work with government waste management organizations to design a directionally-drilled borehole disposal solution that meets strict safety standards alongside local community preferences. We tailor our patented solution to the specific waste form, available geology options and local regulatory requirements of each client, with implementation through our partnerships with industry leaders as well as flexible IP licensing options.  Projects include advanced reactor and SMR waste disposal, stand-alone borehole disposal of small existing nuclear waste inventories, and working alongside mined repository programs to increase safety and reduce costs by moving certain waste streams into boreholes.

Press Contact

Sophie McCallum:
media@deepisolation.com
Deep Isolation, Inc.
2001 Addison St., Suite 300
Berkeley, CA 94704 USA
www.deepisolation.com

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Berkeley — Deep Isolation US LLC (Deep Isolation) entered into a Mentor-Protégé Agreement with Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, LLC (SIMCO), the new Management and Operation contractor for the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). SIMCO’s parent is Bechtel National, Inc.

The Parties agreed that establishing a mentor-protégé relationship will enhance the capabilities of Deep Isolation as it relates to performance assessment, licensing requirements, and permit compliance for nuclear waste disposal operations on behalf of the Department of Energy. The Parties believe that development in these areas will improve the Deep Isolation’s ability to win work disposing of nuclear waste using its deep borehole technology.

“This is an important milestone for Deep Isolation because it will allow us to add capacity on many of the elements that need to happen for a large disposal contract,” said Deep Isolation CEO and co-founder Liz Muller. “We are excited to work with SIMCO and the team from Bechtel and look forward to doing everything we can to assist with the effective and safe operations of the WIPP facility.”

Rick Kacich, Operations Manager for Bechtel National, Inc. is responsible for the mentor-protégé relationship, and stated, “We have been working with Deep Isolation since 2019, and are impressed with their approach to innovation, with the prospect of improving safety and reducing cost. We are delighted to assist them with building capacity through this mentor-protégé relationship.”

The mentor-protégé agreement could also lead to opportunities outside of the WIPP facility.

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About Deep Isolation

Deep Isolation specializes in deep borehole disposal of nuclear waste. We work with government waste management organizations to design a directionally-drilled borehole disposal solution that meets strict safety standards alongside local community preferences. We tailor our patented solution to the specific waste form, available geology options and local regulatory requirements of each client, with implementation through our partnerships with industry leaders as well as flexible IP licensing options.  Projects include advanced reactor and SMR waste disposal, stand-alone borehole disposal of small existing nuclear waste inventories, and working alongside mined repository programs to increase safety and reduce costs by moving certain waste streams into boreholes.

Press Contact

Sophie McCallum:
media@deepisolation.com
Deep Isolation, Inc.
2001 Addison St., Suite 300
Berkeley, CA 94704 USA
www.deepisolation.com

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London — Deep Isolation EMEA Ltd. has won a grant from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (formerly BEIS) to engineer a corrosion-resistant canister capable of safely encapsulating spent fuel assemblies for disposal within deep borehole repositories 1 to 3 kilometers underground. Funding comes from the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, part of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.

The project will support the UK’s net-zero targets for 2050 by tackling a fundamental challenge to the success of small modular reactors: the need for safe, secure, scalable and cost-effective spent nuclear fuel disposal solutions.

With a goal of meeting UK regulatory requirements for deep borehole disposal, this work will help advance the technological maturity level of Deep Isolation’s disposal canister designs. The project, a collaboration between the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, the University of Sheffield and NAC International Inc., will also include the manufacturing and testing of a prototype canister tailored to UK requirements, thus establishing a canister manufacturing supply chain.

“This canister provides an option for disposal in a deep borehole that brings greater flexibility and potential cost savings for disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste,” said Chris Parker, Global Head of Business Development and Managing Director of Deep Isolation EMEA. “By giving the UK choice and flexibility in disposal, it helps ensure new nuclear as a vital component of the UK’s 2050 net zero strategy.”

Parker explained that in the UK deep borehole technology cannot replace the need for a traditional mined geological disposal facility (GDF), but that it has the potential to reduce costs and save time for the UK’s GDF programme because it can accept selected high heat generating waste streams at much greater depth.

“An added benefit is that the UK’s advanced manufacturing capabilities provide us with an ideal supply chain with which to service the growing international demand for deep borehole disposal,” Parker said.

The project will give UK manufacturers an early mover advantage in the global borehole disposal market that could be valued at more than £100 billion in the coming decades. Each canister would dispose of spent fuel that has enabled the generation of 132 million kWh of low carbon electricity, representing a saving of nearly 27,000 tonnes of CO 2 per canister.

Alan Woods, Strategy Director at Rolls-Royce SMR, says: “I am delighted to be on the project board for this Deep Isolation-led project, because the innovation they are bringing to market – small, modular disposal of radioactive waste in deep boreholes – will be an important enabler of the international SMR market, and a great export opportunity for UK manufacturers.” Rolls- Royce SMR aims to complete its first unit in the UK in the early 2030s and build up to 10 by 2035.

Deep Isolation specializes in borehole disposal of nuclear waste, and has more than a dozen contracts across three continents. Projects include advanced reactor and SMR waste disposal, stand-alone borehole disposal of small existing nuclear waste inventories, and working alongside mined repository programmes to increase safety and reduce costs by moving certain waste streams into boreholes. Deep Isolation has been granted 19 patents and has more than 90 notices of invention.

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About the Deep Isolation

Deep Isolation is a leading global innovator in nuclear waste storage and disposal solutions. Driven by a passion for environmental stewardship and scientific ingenuity, the company’s patented solution of advanced nuclear technologies enables global delivery through its partnerships with industry leaders as well as flexible IP licensing options.

Press Contact

media@deepisolation.com

Deep Isolation, Inc.
2001 Addison St., Suite 300
Berkeley, CA 94704 USA
www.deepisolation.com

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About the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero is focused on the energy portfolio from the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). This department will provide dedicated leadership focused on delivering security of energy supply, ensuring properly functioning markets, greater energy efficiency and seizing the opportunities of net zero to lead the world in new green industries.

Leading economy-wide transformation by backing enterprise and long-term growth, generating cheaper, cleaner, homegrown energy and unleashing the UK as a science superpower through innovation.  
  
Funded through the Government’s £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, which provides funding for low-carbon technologies and systems. Decreasing the costs of decarbonisation, the Portfolio will help enable the UK to end its contribution to climate change.

Berkeley, Calif. — A new Deep Borehole Demonstration Center will be publicly launched Feb. 27 at the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix, Ariz. It was founded as a new nonprofit organization and is open to participation from governments, utilities, nuclear operators and research organizations interested in studying nuclear waste disposal technologies for worldwide deployment.

Deep Borehole Demonstration Center

The nonprofit’s Board of Directors includes Deep Isolation and inaugural members from the National Radiation Protection Institute in the Czech Republic, U.S.-based utility Southern Company and Deep Isolation’s CEO. The Board has appointed Ted Garrish, former Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy, to serve as Launch Executive Director.

“This is the beginning of being able to offer countries a new option: a deep borehole repository,” Garrish said. “This gives countries an alternative, and in some cases, boreholes could also work alongside mined repositories for particular waste streams, such as from advanced reactors. The Deep Borehole Demonstration Center will allow multinational and cross-organizational collaborations to begin the work of characterizing the entire system. This is how we get to the next stage.”

The impetus for the Center was an international survey of waste management organization stakeholders published by Deep Isolation and the University of Sheffield in March 2022. Four-out-of-five stakeholders surveyed for the report said they want more international collaboration to advance deep borehole disposal and agreed overwhelmingly that the key next step is a demonstration of the end-to-end technology.

“Our customers and prospective customers have been asking for something exactly like this — a facility designed to advance the development of the deep borehole repository concept so they can feel confident that, as they commission new nuclear power plants to meet net zero goals, they will be able to simultaneously plan for a flexible, affordable waste disposal solution,” said Deep Isolation CEO Liz Muller, chair of the Center’s board.

Using a membership-funded model, the Center will draw on international participation to demonstrate the viability of deep borehole technology and to develop improved guidance and international consensus around how regulators can best assess the safety case for deep borehole disposal.

The Center’s mission is to advance the maturity of the safety case for deep borehole disposal and the technical readiness levels of the disposal concept, including characterization, construction, canister handling, emplacement and retrieval.

The Center’s board also includes Jitka Mikšová, Head of the RWM Division at the National Radiation Protection Institute (SÚRO), Czech Republic, and Dr. Richard Esposito, R&D Program Manager for Geosciences & Carbon Management at Southern Company. The Board is also establishing an independent science-driven Advisory Committee to assist in ensuring transparency and scrutiny of the Center’s work.

Dr. Esposito of Southern Company said: “Deep borehole disposal brings an important new option to the table for geologic disposal of nuclear waste. We look forward to working with public and private sector partners worldwide to both evaluate and demonstrate the viability of the technology through the new Deep Borehole Demonstration Center.”

Mikšová of SÚRO said deep borehole disposal is especially of interest to countries with small waste inventories where a conventional mined geological repository is not economically efficient.

“The Center foundation is creating the right platform for the necessary demonstration of the feasibility of this disposal option, and one through which international teams can contribute to improving the borehole disposal technology with respect to the environment and further adapting it to country-specific conditions and building public confidence,” she said. “On behalf of the Czech partners I am representing, we are looking forward to engaging in the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center work.”

Further details of the government and industry organizations that are backing this work will be announced at Waste Management 2023. In the meantime, interested parties who would like to become members are welcome to contact the Center’s Launch Executive Director.

Garrish said, “The Center is ultimately about answering the age-old question, ‘What about the waste?’ which is inevitably posed by governments considering the merits of nuclear power. This is the question that we’ve got to answer. And that is what the Center was created to do.”

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About the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center
The nonprofit Deep Borehole Demonstration Center was established to provide interested entities and governments worldwide with an independent organization through which to commission projects that characterize and advance the technical readiness of deep borehole nuclear waste disposal technologies.

Press Contact

Kari Hulac
info@deepboreholedemo.org

By Kari Hulac

In 2022 the world saw a notable uptick in the number of countries pursuing clean nuclear energy to fight climate change and secure energy independence. In turn, more governments and next generation nuclear developers are thinking about the back end of the fuel cycle while evaluating deployment of reactors.

Among the more than a dozen contracts Deep Isolation has across three continents, our advanced reactor and small modular reactor waste disposal work includes:

*Participation in four U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) grant projects with three led by partner organizations. Deep Isolation’s scope will be to examine various aspects of how deep borehole repositories for nuclear waste can help close the nuclear fuel cycle through disposal of spent fuel and reprocessing waste streams. The total grant funding for these projects is $15.3 million, representing a significant investment from the U.S. government in support of an integrated waste management approach.

*A second contract with Fermi Energia, an energy company working on the development and deployment of small module reactors (SMRs) in Estonia. This work will build on Deep Isolation’s earlier work with Fermi Energia, a project that concluded that most of the country’s geology would be acceptable for deep borehole disposal.  This new project will research the cost effectiveness of using boreholes to dispose of waste from an SMR that would be deployed in Estonia by 2050.

Deep Isolation Head of Engineering Jesse Sloane, who is overseeing the company’s DOE grant work, funded under the ARPA-E umbrella, explains this synergy between advanced nuclear reactors and deep borehole repositories.

ARPA-E logo, Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy helps fund R&D for nuclear energy and nuclear waste disposal projects such as deep boreholes repositories.

Q. We are clearly seeing more interest from the next generation nuclear reactor community in deep boreholes over the past year. What is the primary driver of this heightened consideration?

A. There are many factors contributing to the advancement of deep borehole disposal, and I think it is hard to narrow it down to only one. We are certainly seeing worldwide drivers such as the geopolitical environment and climate change concerns play key roles in the desire to find near-term solutions to the nuclear waste problem in support of carbon-neutral nuclear energy.

In the European Union, there are changes in taxonomy regulations to support investment in sustainable advanced nuclear technologies, and in the case of climate change mitigation, these are coupled with requirements to have plans for an operational disposal facility for high-level waste by 2050.  From a technical perspective, I think deep borehole disposal repository facilities are uniquely poised to be designed, licensed, constructed, and operational within that timeframe.  Borehole repositories require far less construction time than the traditional mined repositories, given they are smaller in scale, can be modular in design, and do not require workers to be underground.

In the United States, utilities that deploy advanced reactors will be required to fund the storage of the spent fuel for up to 20 years after it has been removed from the reactor.  This is a significant policy change from what is required for the existing fleet of reactors — for which the DOE is responsible for providing waste disposal services as of 1998 and is currently paying the utilities for spent fuel storage costs. Therefore, the industry seems keen to see progress in the form of innovative waste disposal technologies, including deep borehole disposal.

Q.  Of the four DOE projects, Deep Isolation is the lead on one, a $3.6 million grant in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and NAC International, to develop a universal canister system for advanced reactor waste streams. What are some key aspects of this project, and how does it fit into the broader picture of how deep boreholes can support advanced reactor deployments?

A. This project is funded through ARPA-E’s Optimizing Nuclear Waste and Advanced Reactor Disposal Systems (ONWARDS) program, and it specifically addresses consideration of deep borehole disposal as an alternative disposal pathway for advanced reactor waste.

There are four key parts for this project: 1.) The project team will research various advanced reactor waste forms through literature reviews, experimentation, and collaboration with other ARPA-E projects.  2.) These waste forms will be analyzed through repository performance assessments in a variety of geologic disposal configurations, including mined and borehole repositories.  3.) We will design and analyze a disposal canister that will be compatible with these waste forms and will be appropriately sized for disposal in a borehole or mined repository.  The design efforts will culminate with the fabrication of a prototype canister.  4.) We will develop generic waste acceptance criteria for waste forms to be packaged in the new canister, with differing criteria for disposal in both mined and borehole repository configurations. 

The project will provide a pathway for disposal of multiple waste forms for advanced reactor designs that have not yet been built or licensed so that a disposal pathway is identified prior to the reactors even coming online.  Future analyses can confirm if additional waste forms will be acceptable for disposal within the canister, which will allow these reactor designs to mature and progress while simultaneously planning for eventual disposal of the spent fuel.

Q. You are Deep Isolation’s Project Lead on a team that was recently selected to receive $4.9 million from the DOE ARPA-E CURIE program. The project, led by Argonne National Laboratory, is to develop and demonstrate oxide reduction technology for pyrochemical recycling of light water reactor used nuclear fuel. Deep Isolation will develop an integrated oxide reduction waste disposal plan, while simultaneously determining ideal waste acceptance parameters. Please explain the significance of this project.

A. ARPA-E’s CURIE program aims to significantly reduce the volume of light water reactor spent nuclear fuel requiring disposal by advancing various reprocessing technologies for ultimate commercial applicability.  We are partnering with Argonne National Laboratory, advanced reactor developer Oklo Inc., and Case Western Reserve University to advance oxide reduction reprocessing technology to maximize recovery of fissionable material from the existing inventory of spent nuclear fuel.  Reprocessing, whether through oxide reduction or some other means, will always result in waste forms that must be safely isolated and disposed of deep underground to protect the public from the harmful radiation emanating from those waste products.  This isolation is necessary because the waste, similar to spent nuclear fuel, contains isotopes with long half-lives (hundreds to thousands of years) that emit harmful radiation.

Deep Isolation will develop a disposal plan for the oxide reduction process waste streams. It is worth mentioning that the CURIE program has some ambitious target metrics, including a goal to maintain disposal costs in the range of 0.1¢/kWh. To reduce disposal costs, Deep Isolation will also perform an economic analysis to determine an ideal range of acceptance parameters for those waste streams. This will ensure that reprocessing technology is not only safe but economical and able to support the needs of the coming fleet of advanced reactors.

Q. In addition to the Argonne project you just discussed, describe Deep Isolation’s two other ARPA-E projects: An ONWARDS project with Oklo, Argonne National Lab and Idaho National Laboratory and a second CURIE project led by EPRI.

A. The ONWARDS project led by Oklo will develop a first-of-a-kind nuclear fuel recycling facility.  The project will advance the technical and commercial capabilities of an electrorefining facility to be deployed in support of metal-fueled advanced reactors.  Deep Isolation’s scope for the project will analyze the pyroprocessing waste streams to determine if they are suitable for deep borehole disposal.  We will also develop an integrated waste disposal plan for the project’s waste streams.

We are also fortunate to be part of another CURIE project, led by EPRI. This project, which includes an advanced reactor company, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Southern Company, and Dominion Engineering, will develop a complete advanced reactor fuel cycle enterprise. The project will consider the use of light water reactor spent nuclear fuel as feedstock, explore optimization of various recycling processes, and will integrate with Deep Isolation’s innovative approach to efficient waste management through deep borehole disposal.

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