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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

Nuclear Fuel Cycle

The Assay TV speaks with Rod Adams, Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital and Atomic Insights host

February 20, 2022 By Editor Leave a Comment

The Assay is a media project of the 121 Group, based in Hong Kong, that serves investors, fund managers and analysts who are involved with and/or investing in a wide range of mining ventures. As part of their efforts to bring a greater understanding of the complex markets that control the prospects of mining ventures, The Assay TV produces a video series with CEO interviews from all over the world. On February 16, Adam Thompson hosted Rod Adams in a wide-ranging conversation about nuclear energy, uranium and the emergence of advanced nuclear designs in the coming years. This is the beginning of an exploration of the growing concerns about where and how the advanced nuclear sector will secure their projected fuel supplies and the impact of the growth of SMRs and Gen IV develop on uranium miners.

You can watch this interview with Rod by clicking on the above video or at Youtube here.

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Atomic education, Atomic Entrepreneurs, New Nuclear, Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Nuclear Waste, Podcast, Pro Nuclear Video, Uranium mining Tagged With: 121 Group, Adam Thompson, The Assay, The Assay TV, uranium, uranium market

Atomic Show #295 – Liz Muller, Co-founder and CEO of Deep Isolation

January 24, 2022 By Rod Adams 5 Comments

Liz Muller, CEO Deep Isolation

Deep Isolation is a young company developing solutions for “the nuclear waste issue.” They have built their solution option based on highly developed technologies used in the oil and gas drilling sector.

Several decades ago, after discussing and evaluating several options, the world’s scientific and political communities came to a general consensus around the notion that certain categories of byproducts from nuclear technologies in power, industry, medicine and defense should be permanently isolated from the human environment in deep geological formations.

Nearly all of the specific solution concepts evolving from that consensus involved large mined repositories. As envisioned in most countries, deep geologic repositories would be large enough to store a large portion of their waste. They planned to develop just one or a very small number of repositories.

For many reasons, most countries have had difficulty implementing their envisioned solution. Only a handful have progressed to the point of choosing a location and only one, Finland, is nearing the point of commissioning their facility and starting to dispose of their nuclear waste.

Addressing nuclear waste using oil and gas drilling technology

About a half a dozen years ago, Richard and Elizabeth Muller looked at the world’s nuclear waste problem through a new lens. Richard knew about the rapid developments in drilling technologies that had enabled the US natural gas industry to become most productive supplier in the world.

He thought about the ability to steer drill bits into selected layers of rock and about the long horizontal laterals being created, some with lengths measured in miles. It seem to Richard and Liz that modern drilling techniques could be applied to reduce the complexity of developing mined repositories for nuclear waste.

Additional research led the pair to form Deep Isolation, a world leader in the concept of using directional drilling to create small modular repositories (SMRs, if you will) that could be a right-sized solution for countries with small waste inventories and for distributed solutions in countries with large inventories.

One of the major advantages of using distributed deep boreholes is that they can be developed in locations that minimize the number of ton-miles needed to move the material from its current safe resting place to a permanent (but retrievable) disposal location.

Transportation is not only costly, but it’s an activity that provides opponents with multiple opportunities to interfere, insert delays, add costs and tie up processes in legal battles.

Developing a complete solution set

Deep Isolation knows that many of the challenges that have slowed the development of nuclear waste repositories will not disappear as a result of their technological development. It’s not a magic wand that will eliminate opposition or convince communities that they should meekly accept the role of storing used nuclear fuel – aka nuclear waste.

They recognize that one or more deep boreholes are only components of a complete solution.

Though steadily developing the physical and technical capacity to license and build modular repositories, Deep Isolation is focusing on engagement activities that will build trust, understanding and perhaps acceptance. In the best case, full understanding and trust could result in open invitations from a welcoming community that sees benefits in hosting their facilities.

Deep Isolation is engaged with communities, NGOs, national and local governments. They’ve completed several studies and have more underway. They are in discussions about the potential of a multinational demonstration that is more comprehensive than the demonstration they completed in 2019.

This is the second Atomic Show featuring Liz Muller. While reviewing some of the basics of her company and their technological solutions, this show focused more on providing an update of activities and progress made since April of 2020.

As always, your comments are welcome.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/AtomicShowFiles/atomic_20220121_295.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:43 — 57.3MB)

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

Open Letter to Interim Storage Partners and Holtec – please find better locations for your CISF projects ASAP

November 7, 2020 By Rod Adams 21 Comments

Dear Holtec and Interim Storage Partners: Both of you are actively pursuing permission from the US Nuclear Regulatory to build consolidated interim storage facilities in an area of southwest Texas and southeast New Mexico that seemed well suited for the purpose at the time that you began the process. Times have changed since then. One […]

Filed Under: Atomic politics, Fossil fuel competition, Nuclear Waste

Atomic Show #273 – Liz Muller, Deep Isolation

April 23, 2020 By Rod Adams 7 Comments

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 […]

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

Radioactive isotopes are too useful to waste

July 10, 2019 By Rod Adams 32 Comments

Forgive me. It’s been almost three months since I last wrote a long form blog or article about the importance of atomic energy as a useful tool for solving many of the world’s most complex and pressing problems. I’ve been stimulated to take a partial break from my blissful state of being a mostly retired […]

Filed Under: Fuel Recycling, isotopes, Nuclear Waste

“Waste issue” continues to be part of antinuclear movement strategy of constipation

May 4, 2018 By Rod Adams 43 Comments

(Reprint. Originally published September 17, 2013. During the 4.5 years since the original appeared, the licensing moratorium mentioned has been lifted, and the confidence rule has been replaced by Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel [NRC–2012–0246] but stubborn opposition arises in response to any proposed solutions.) During the 1970s, the antinuclear movement made a collective […]

Filed Under: Nuclear Waste, Atomic politics

Time to Re-examine Alternatives for Plutonium Disposition – Dr. Peter Lyons explains why dilute and dispose is wasteful and unworkable

February 24, 2018 By Guest Author 31 Comments

By Peter Lyons Somewhere in Russia, 34 tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium—enough material to make about 10,000 weapons—are awaiting disposal. Moscow was supposed to start destroying this stockpile, but has yet to start, leaving a huge threat lurking in an unknown location. If even a tiny fraction of this material fell into terrorists’ hands, they […]

Filed Under: Atomic politics, Fuel Recycling

Rep Shimkus, a conservative market proponent, recognizes that “the waste issue” imposes a financial risk and cost on nuclear energy

February 10, 2018 By Rod Adams 15 Comments

During a recent House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing titled DOE Modernization: Advancing the Economic and National Security Benefits of America’s Nuclear Infrastructure there was an important exchange between Rep. Shimkus (R-IL) and Maria Korsnick, President and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute. So you don’t have to scroll through 4 hours of video, I […]

Filed Under: Nuclear Waste

Spent Fuel Pools Protect The Public. Don’t Believe Skeptics

June 20, 2017 By Rod Adams

A two-page Policy Forum opinion piece titled Nuclear safety regulation in the post-Fukushima era: Flawed analyses underlie lax U.S. regulation of spent fuel by Edwin Lyman, Michael Schoeppner and Frank von Hippel appeared in the May 26, 2017 issue of Science Magazine, an outlet that has a public reputation as a reliable source of technical […]

Filed Under: Antinuclear activist, Nuclear regulations, Nuclear Waste

Commercial supplies of HALEU needed to enable advanced reactors

May 15, 2017 By Rod Adams

Jake DeWitte and Caroline Cochran, the cofounders of Oklo, a start up company that is developing a 1-2 MWe nuclear reactor-based power system for remote areas, have been credited with drawing attention to a problem that can be solved by a government policy decision. “Nearly all advanced reactors have a need for low enriched fuel […]

Filed Under: Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Advanced Atomic Technologies, Fuel Comparisons, Fuel Recycling, Nuclear Waste

Secretary of Energy Rick Perry visits Yucca Mountain and talks with Nevada Gov Brian Sandoval

March 28, 2017 By Rod Adams

Yesterday, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry toured the Yucca Mountain site to get a first hand look at the current state of the facility. Following the site tour, Sec. Perry met with Gov. Brian Sandoval. Here is what the Department of Energy press release said about that conversation. “Governor Sandoval and I had a frank […]

Filed Under: Nuclear Waste, Nuclear regulations, Politics of Nuclear Energy

Trump Budget Blueprint For DOE Will Revive Yucca Conflict. Does Little To Enable Nuclear

March 27, 2017 By Rod Adams

Short section of 5 mile long access tunnel at idle and far-from-complete Yucca Mountain site.

The first few words of the first bullet in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) section of the Trump Administration’s Budget Blueprint seem purposely chose to instigate maximum conflict. Provides $120 million to restart licensing activities for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository This phrase, describing a spending item that represents just 0.4% of a $28 […]

Filed Under: Atomic politics, Nuclear Waste

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