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Atomic Insights

Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

Innovation

Atomic Show #273 – Liz Muller, Deep Isolation

April 23, 2020 By Rod Adams 7 Comments

Liz Muller, co-founder and CEO, Deep Isolation

Liz Muller is a co-founder and the CEO of Deep Isolation, a company that makes the modest claim of having invented a solution to nuclear waste.

The politically unsolved waste issue has plagued nuclear energy development since the mid 1970s. That was when it became abundantly clear that the original plan to recycle used fuel wasn’t going to be easily achieved.

During the intervening half century, it’s accurate to declare that there has been essentially no measurable progress made. Steps have been taken to move forward, but just as many steps have been taken in the opposite direction.

Until recently.

Inspired to think differently

The bright idea that forms the basis for Deep Isolation came to Richard Muller when he heard that there was interest in using boreholes as a way to achieve geologic storage. That is the solution path that most responsible scientific organizations have recommended.

In lingo common among my former shipmates, Muller experienced a BFO – blinding flash of the obvious.

But soon Muller realized that the people who had restarted the discussion about boreholes, a rather old idea for nuclear waste disposal, weren’t planning to use horizontal drilling. Instead they were thinking of very deep vertical holes.

He had initially thought they were taking the obvious – to him – step of capitalizing on the refined technology used in almost all state-of-the- art oil and gas wells in the United States.

Though he had not previously considered how boreholes might help solve the nuclear waste issue, he recognized that horizontal laterals mitigated most of the challenges that plagued vertical holes.

Partnering with a specialist in community engagement

Once Richard Muller had been inspired to think of using horizontal drilling to address nuclear waste disposal, he turned to Liz Muller, who was a specialist in environmental issues and related community engagement.

After several months of focused technical evaluation efforts, the pair realized that their concept had sufficient merit and patentable intellectual property to turn it into a company.

Deep Isolation believes that its solution is not only technically sound, but it is uniquely well-suited to deployment. It’s a modular, local or regional solution to an often contentious problem that is gains political complexity when handled on a national level.

From a project management point of view, boreholes can reduce costs, risks, and schedules compared to a centrally sited repository. From a community point of view, they can address issues of equity, proof of safety, and community benefits.

Acceptance building rapidly

Like all newly formed companies with a great idea, Deep Isolation realized there was no direct linkage between having a uniquely valuable idea and achieving success in implementing that idea.

During the past year, however, the company has been successfully attracting a talented team, building an impressive roster of advisors, obtaining $14 million in seed capital and attracting solid partners in the form of Bechtel and NAC International.

Liz Muller joined me on the day after the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day to describe the company that she and Richard have co-founded. She explained the technology, spoke about the continuing efforts to engage with communities and Deep Isolation’s approach to meeting customer needs.

She told me a bit about the company’s finances and provided a direct point of contact to her for people who listened to the Atomic Show. To protect her from spammers, I won’t include that information here, but it’s in the audio.

I hope you enjoy the show. As always, feedback is welcome.

I’d also like to encourage Atomic Insights listeners, especially those who love to get into technical details, to take Ms. Muller up on her request for comments and feedback about their recently released safety calculations.

Here’s a link to a video that illustrates Deep Isolation’s technology.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/AtomicShowFiles/atomic_20200423_273.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:26 — 44.1MB)

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Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Innovation, Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Nuclear Waste, Podcast

Kairos Power Is Hiring For Hybrid Natural Gas-Nuclear Power System

February 17, 2017 By Rod Adams

As long-established nuclear system vendors falter under the weight of challenges that often burden mega-projects, a growing herd of start-up companies envision an exciting future in innovative nuclear solutions to the world’s energy trilemma.

One of the newest additions in the space is Kairos Power, an Oakland, CA-based start-up that is quietly assembling a team capable of commercializing their FHR (fluroide salt-cooled high-temperature reactor).

UCB NE participants in FHR project.
With Rod Adams and Per Peterson in front of historic Gilman Hall. Feb 2015

Their technology is a system whose major components and integration modeling has been under development for several years. The research, conducted mainly at the University of California, Berkely (UCB) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has led the developers to believe that a hybrid system that uses both nuclear fission heat and natural gas heat can be a clean, competitive source of dependable, flexible power.

Aside: I had the opportunity to visit UCB and speak to the Nuclear Engineering Department a couple of years ago. During that visit, I toured several of the lab facilities where FHR components were being modeled and tested. End Aside.

The privately-held company’s founders recognize that too much exposure too early can result in inflated expectations. They are experienced enough to know that nothing moves very fast in the energy industry, especially in the nuclear segment of the industry.

Dr. Per Peterson, a well-known nuclear engineering professor at UCB, is a Kairos consultant. Here is how he responded to a recent information inquiry.

A risk with nuclear start ups is that excessive hype can damage credibility. The company is currently in the early phases of recruiting, meaning that the major external focus is on providing information to universities for recruiting purposes.

In addition to the company website, which includes a list of current positions that the company is seeking to fill, Dr. Peterson said that the best available summary of Kairos’s current situation is available on its LinkedIn page.

Kairos deserves to have the space and patience needed to develop its technology, licensing and commercialization plans. Its current goal is to build a demonstration prototype by about 2030. Following testing and refinement, Kairos expects to be ready to enter the commercial power market in the late 2030s.

Though that kind of long-term thinking turns some people off, it’s worth remembering that someone who wants to be a medical doctor by 2030 and a respected specialist by the late 2030s should be working on early steps towards those goals now. If the work has not already begun, it must start in the near future in order to enable a reasonable probability of achieving those worthwhile objectives.

For engineers who want to invest their career in developing machinery and integrating systems that might help solve some of humanity’s most wicked problems, it might be worthwhile to get onto Kairos’s mailing list.


Note: A version of the above post was first published on Forbes.com and is reprinted here with permission.

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Hybrid, Innovation

PBS Newshour teases NOVA’s Nuclear Option

January 5, 2017 By Rod Adams 33 Comments

Judy Woodruff introduced a “must see” segment on PBS’s Newshour last night. JUDY WOODRUFF: Now: why some engineers and investors are making big bets to develop a new generation of nuclear reactors. Miles O’Brien has the story. It was a co-production with our friends at PBS “NOVA” tied to the January 11 documentary “The Nuclear […]

Filed Under: Pro Nuclear Video, Advanced Atomic Technologies, Innovation

Strengthening nuclear innovators – Bootcamp at Berkeley

May 3, 2016 By Rod Adams 5 Comments

The Nuclear Innovation Alliance, UC Berkeley and Third Way are partnering with universities, national labs, think tanks, the Department of Energy and corporations including Southern Co., Google, Transatomic, Terrestrial Energy, and TerraPower to offer the first Nuclear Innovation Bootcamp August 1-12 at the University of California, Berkeley. Twenty-five students (graduate students or undergraduates who will […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Innovation

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