November 2022
Deep Isolation is pleased to announce that it will contribute to two U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-E CURIE grant projects: A $4.9 million award led by Argonne National Laboratory to develop and demonstrate oxide reduction (OR) technology for pyrochemical recycling of light water reactor used nuclear fuel (UNF); and a $2.8 million award led by EPRI to develop an advanced reactor fuel cycle enterprise that aims to explore the viability of recycling spent nuclear fuel to power advanced nuclear energy systems, which will be important in meeting national decarbonization goals.
CURIE, short for Converting UNF Radioisotopes Into Energy, funds innovations in reprocessing technologies that aim to extract and recycle valuable materials from used nuclear fuel that can then be used to power the next generation of nuclear reactors.
The awards bring the number of Deep Isolation U.S. federal grant projects this year to four. Previously the company received a $3.6 million grant to develop a universal nuclear waste disposal canister for advanced reactor waste streams and it's part of a $4 million grant with advanced reactor developer Oklo, Inc. and other partners to develop the first nuclear fuel recycling and disposal facility in the United States.
Collectively, these projects are expanding applications of Deep Isolation’s technologies across a wider range of current and future fuel cycle options.
Please visit our News and Events page for more details.
Members of Deep Isolation's leadership team share a few reasons why they're more optimistic than ever about the company's progress toward showing governments around the world that deep borehole repositories could be a viable, safe, cost-effective solution for nuclear waste.
Deep Isolation embarks on borehole cost study for proposed SMR in Estonia
Deep Isolation recently announced its second borehole study in Estonia in support of Fermi Energia's efforts to deploy a small modular reactor that would help the country reach net-zero emissions.
Fermi Energia first partnered with Deep Isolation in 2021 on a preliminary studythat concluded that the majority of Estonia’s underground geology provides access to suitable rock formations that could safely isolate spent nuclear fuel in a horizontal borehole repository a kilometer underground. (We recently published a case study about this project.)
The new study will evaluate the costs of borehole disposal for two scenarios: Direct disposal of the spent fuel in its standard disposal canisters; and disposal of the larger diameter vitrified waste form that would be produced if Estonia were to decide to reprocess its spent fuel.
New podcast: Understanding the American conversation about nuclear energy and waste
Ep. 21 of Nuclear Waste: The Whole Story is now live, featuring Tay Stevenson, founder of Envoy Public Labs.
Stevenson says he's knocked on literally thousands of doors to talk to Americans about nuclear energy, and the waste question always comes up. But he says it's not necessarily for obvious reasons.
Listen to find out what he's learned from these conversations and for insights into what's ahead for nuclear energy with as many as 10 U.S. states investigating the deployment of advanced reactors.
Find all of the episodes at nuclearwastepodcast.com or on your favorite podcast player.
We welcome your podcast ideas and feedback. Email us at podcast@deepisolation.com.
“It is essential that our country makes progress toward disposal of used nuclear fuel
and high-level radioactive waste.”
— Steve Nesbit, Deep Isolation Utilities Advisor
Deep Isolation hires Utilities Advisor
We are pleased to announce that Steve Nesbit, an expert in nuclear power policy, has joined Deep Isolation as a Utilities Advisor.
Nesbit is the founder of LMNT Consulting Company and joins Deep Isolation as a consultant after a 40-year career in the nuclear power industry. Nesbit’s career included 37 years at Duke Energy, where he most recently served for nine years as Director of Nuclear Policy.
Prior to that he was Spent Fuel Manager for the company and was heavily involved in nuclear industry technical and policy initiatives related to used fuel management. Nesbit also worked on several DOE projects including the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository and the Centralized Interim Storage Facility Project.
Learn more about Steve in our hiring announcement, and meet the growing Deep Isolation team here.
Visit SolveNuclearWaste.org to sign our pledge
Here are our recent blog posts.
Deep Isolation news and industry events
Associated Press, Nov. 2, 2022
Oklo Selected for U.S. DOE Project to Enable Recycling of Used Nuclear Fuel in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory, Deep Isolation, and Case Western Reserve University
Nuclear Engineering International Magazine, Nov. 3, 2022
Deep thought on disposal
Successfully creating a deep geological disposal site for high-level waste has long been a key challenge for the nuclear industry. Now, a series of breakthroughs seems to show light at the end of the tunnel, including deep borehole disposal.
Event, Nov. 13–17, 2022
International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference
Dr. Ethan Bates, Director of Systems Engineering for Deep Isolation, will participate as a panelist in the plenary session, "Cool New Reactors Coming to You Soon! But what about the Waste?" at 3:15 p.m. MST on Nov. 17 at the International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM). This conference is an embedded topic at the ANS Winter Meeting and Technology Expo taking place in Phoenix Nov. 13-17. The IHLRWM plenary session is at 8 a.m. MST Tuesday, Nov. 15.
Event, Feb. 26 - March 2, 2023
Waste Management Symposia 2023
Deep Isolation will present two papers at the Waste Management Symposia 2023 in Phoenix, taking place Feb. 26 - March 2, 2023: One will update our progress toward developing a new universal waste canister, and the other provides an update on our progress toward demonstrating technical readiness.
NS Energy, Oct. 17, 2022
Advanced nuclear reactors: Profiling research projects aimed at limiting volume of waste
A new round of US DOE funding is supporting a swathe of new technologies that aim to effect a dramatic reduction in the volume of waste from the new generation of advanced nuclear reactor technologies. Deep Isolation partners with two groups receiving grant funding.