US-based Deep Isolation EMEA Ltd has been awarded a grant by the UK Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (formerly part of BEIS) to develop a corrosion-resistant canister for the deep disposal of used nuclear fuel. The project is a collaboration between the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (NAMRC), the University of Sheffield and US-based NAC International. Funding comes from the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund, part of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. The canister must ensure the safe encapsulation of used fuel assemblies in deep borehole repositories 1-3 km underground.
The project includes the manufacture and testing of a prototype canister tailored to UK requirements and will establish a canister manufacturing supply chain. The project will support the UK’s net-zero targets for 2050 by addressing the need for safe, secure, scalable and cost-effective used fuel disposal solutions. This is seen as a key challenge to the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs).
Alan Woods, Strategy Director at Rolls-Royce SMR is on the project board for the project. Royce SMR aims to complete its first unit in the UK in the early 2030s and build up to 10 by 2035. Woods says the innovation it is bringing to market is small, modular disposal of radioactive waste in deep boreholes. This “will be an important enabler of the international SMR market, and a great export opportunity for UK manufacturers”, he notes.
Deep Isolation says the work will help advance the technological maturity level of its disposal canister designs intended disposal in a deep borehole. This brings greater flexibility and potential cost savings for disposal of used fuel and high-level waste,” says 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 acknowledges that the UK deep borehole technology cannot replace the need for a traditional mined geological disposal facility (GDF). However, 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”. He adds 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”.
Deep Isolation specialises in borehole disposal of nuclear waste, and has more than a dozen contracts across three continents. Projects include advanced reactor and SMR waste disposal and stand-alone borehole disposal of small existing nuclear waste inventories. The company says it also works 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.
According to Deep Isolation, the project will give UK manufacturers an early mover advantage in the global borehole disposal market that could be valued at more than £100bn in the coming decades. In 2020, Deep Isolation signed a long-term cooperation and licensing agreement with NAC International to design, manufacture and supply canisters for disposal or storage in deep horizontal boreholes.
A new Deep Borehole Demonstration Centre will be launched later in February at the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix, Arizona. The non-profit organisation will be open to governments, utilities, nuclear operators and research organisations interested in studying nuclear waste disposal technologies for worldwide deployment.
The impetus for the Centre was an international survey of waste management organisation 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.
The Board of Directors includes inaugural members from the National Radiation Protection Institute in the Czech Republic, US-based utility Southern Company and Deep Isolation’s CEO. Ted Garrish, former Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the US Department of Energy will serve as Launch Executive Director. Other board members include Jitka Mikšová, Head of the Radioactive Waste Management Division at the Czech Republic’s National Radiation Protection Institute (SÚRO) and Dr Richard Esposito, R&D Programme Manager for Geosciences & Carbon Management at Southern Company.
“This is the beginning of being able to offer countries a new option: a deep borehole repository,” Garrish said. “The Deep Borehole Demonstration Centre will allow multinational and cross-organisational collaborations to begin the work of characterising the entire system. This is how we get to the next stage.” Dr Esposito said deep borehole disposal brings an important new option to the table. “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 Centre.”
Mikšová noted that deep borehole disposal is of particular interest to countries with small waste inventories where a conventional mined geological repository is not economically efficient.
