{"id":1908,"date":"2026-08-09T08:26:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T08:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=1908"},"modified":"2026-08-09T08:26:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T08:26:23","slug":"this-nuclear-startup-and-halliburton-repurposed-oil-drilling-to-solve-the-radioactive-waste-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=1908","title":{"rendered":"This nuclear startup and Halliburton repurposed oil drilling to solve the radioactive waste problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

If you drive to the middle of nowhere in central Texas near Cameron\u2014population 5,300\u2014and down a gravel road, you\u2019ll come upon a security gate with a sign stating, \u201cWatch out for the cows.\u201d The warning is no hyperbole, as cattle block the road, delaying the eventual sight of a massive oil-drilling rig.<\/p>\n

\n

A large, bearded man in red Halliburton coveralls and helmet says to beware of snakes and scorpions. \u201cNot trying to scare you; that\u2019s just part of the orientation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welcome to the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center. The site is home to a partnership between the nuclear waste startup Deep Isolation Nuclear, the oilfield services leader Halliburton, known for its drilling and fracking expertise, and others.<\/p>\n

The goal is to solve the nation\u2019s nuclear waste disposal problems just in time to power the construction gold rush of AI data centers with a renaissance of next-generation nuclear energy. The partners aim to use modern, directional oil-drilling techniques to safely bury radioactive waste in perpetuity\u2014about 2 miles underground\u2014in specially designed, 5,000-pound canisters.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo make sure we have a good path for new nuclear, we need to make sure we take care of the waste,\u201d said Deep Isolation CEO Rod Baltzer. \u201cWe can go twice as\u00a0deep\u00a0as a typical [mined nuclear waste] repository, and then follow a formation that\u2019s been out of touch with the surface for a million years.\u201d<\/p>\n

To date, more than\u00a095,000 metric tons\u00a0of spent\u00a0nuclear\u00a0fuel\u2014and rising\u2014sit in temporary storage across about 80 sites in over 30 states, with no permanent homes at the ready.<\/p>\n

A decadeslong effort to develop a controversial, nationwide waste repository in the Nevada desert at Yucca Mountain has largely failed, and the federal government is still trying to figure out how to proceed. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in July just named five states\u2014Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Utah\u2014as finalists for \u201cNuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses\u201d to tackle nuclear fuel recycling and waste. Even if recycling technology proves to be the answer, there will still be waste left over. Deep Isolation believes it has the solution: drilling boreholes near nuclear plants\u2014or anywhere else\u2014for safe disposal. \u201cYou can put it where the waste is generated,\u201d Baltzer said.<\/p>\n

Combining oil and nuclear waste techniques was considered as long as 40 years ago, but the technology and economics weren\u2019t feasible then. Only now is the topic being revisited, especially as the energy sector has perfected drilling much longer wells, including horizontally, to unlock more crude oil from geological rock formations. For Deep Isolation, the buried nuclear waste canisters can even be retrieved in case of emergency.<\/p>\n

No one in the nuclear industry really understood the massive technological advancements made in oil drilling within the last 10 to 20 years, Baltzer told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cEverybody in oil and gas was like, \u2018We do this every day,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd everybody in nuclear went, \u2018Holy cow, I did not know you could do this and retrieve it. That\u2019s amazing.\u2019 We realized there was this disconnect\u2014they just weren\u2019t talking to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time is now of the essence as the AI race escalates, said Jesse Sloane, Deep Isolation executive vice president of engineering. After all, the Trump administration has committed to a fourfold increase in nuclear power by 2050.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t do that without answering the question of, \u2018Well, what do you do with the waste?\u2019\u201d Sloane said.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Deep<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Demo time<\/h2>\n

Early next year, Halliburton will drill the first test well\u2014using an extra-large drill bit\u2014to delve thousands of feet underground vertically and horizontally. And then demonstrate that a crane can reach back in and retrieve each canister one at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nuclear community really wants to see us physically do something at scale and at depth here before they can really get behind it and understand how simple it really is,\u201d said Andy Griffith, executive director of the demonstration center and former deputy assistant secretary of nuclear energy at the DOE.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven today, people are saying, \u2018Well, I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s so risky. What if it gets stuck? What if the seal doesn\u2019t work?\u2019\u201d Griffith continued. \u201cAnd the oil and gas industry people are like, \u2018This is not a big deal.\u2019 But for people that are unfamiliar, they want to see it done. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing here. And they\u2019ll be more open to it, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shale oil boom was revolutionized in part by drilling vertically and then horizontally to dig deeper into the subsurface and crack open more shale rock to release the liquids inside. In this case, the same techniques will be used\u2014except to carry the nuclear waste canister farther away from the surface and wellhead.<\/p>\n

A common misconception, including within the oil business itself, is that vertical-then-horizontal drilling means making an \u201cL\u201d shape. In reality, the well may be drilled nearly 1 mile deep, and then curved by turning roughly 4 degrees every 100 feet. \u201cIt\u2019s a very gradual bend,\u201d Griffith said. \u201cIf you\u2019re looking down a 4-degree-per-100-foot bend, you can\u2019t tell it\u2019s bent in any given section because it\u2019s so gradual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, while the oil industry now routinely drills 4-mile-long horizontal wells, replicating the feat for nuclear waste is no simple task\u2014even if it doesn\u2019t quite rise to the level of a \u201cbig deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

A well is typically drilled about 8 inches wide closer to the bottom, where the oil is sourced. The nuclear waste well will require drilling it about 22 inches wide instead, nearly triple the size. That means using a larger drill bit than normal, then coming back into the well with a \u201chole opener\u201d\u2014the actual, self-explanatory name for the tool\u2014to expand the width.<\/p>\n

This creates a more \u201cinteresting\u201d and \u201cfun\u201d proposition, said Jason Foreman, Halliburton\u2019s North America region manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe drill wells all around the world in various combinations of challenges, and we do it every day,\u201d Foreman told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cThis project pulls them all together, which makes it a unique challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a combination that includes the depth that we\u2019re going to, the deviation, the horizontal well, the diameter of the hole, and the abrasive formation that we\u2019re going through,\u201d he continued. \u201cThose things together create a unique challenge that we\u2019re not sure has been done before.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it costs a lot of money to drill wells for these 15-foot nuclear waste canisters. But Deep Isolation is betting the economics work out far cheaper than building massive repositories such as Yucca Mountain.<\/p>\n

Halliburton is newer to the AI and nuclear industries, but it\u2019s still fundamentally about \u201cwell construction,\u201d Foreman said. Nuclear is \u201canother source of energy,\u201d and Halliburton is in the energy business, he said. \u201cFrom our perspective, it\u2019s a well. In this market, they\u2019re entering a realm that Halliburton lives and breathes in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Deep<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Approaching urgency<\/h2>\n

Deep Isolation was founded a decade ago by Liz Muller and her physicist father, Richard, and they recruited Baltzer, a longtime nuclear waste executive, to join them in 2018.<\/p>\n

Liz Muller handed their CEO reins to Baltzer in 2024\u2014just as momentum was beginning to build\u2014to start a sister company, Deep Fission, which is developing small modular nuclear reactors to operate underground as well.<\/p>\n

Deep Isolation went public in July on the over-the-counter venture market, OTCQB, with a market cap of nearly $300 million. But the company still needs prove out its demonstration project, attract more capital, and work through regulatory issues before it can truly take off, Baltzer acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter spending 25 years in the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle with waste, this is the most interest I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Baltzer said.<\/p>\n

Last month, the DOE selected Deep Isolation for three grants alongside the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of South Carolina\u00a0as part of the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cGenesis Mission\u201d to utilize AI for \u201cenergy dominance.\u201d In these cases, they\u2019re studying AI modeling for ideal nuclear waste disposal site screening and design.<\/p>\n

With so many advancements underway, the biggest hurdle may be the federal Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which essentially bars any permanent nuclear waste disposal licensing outside of Yucca Mountain, a project that is now, again, essentially defunct. The Trump administration and Congress are actively weighing solutions.<\/p>\n

The path forward isn\u2019t necessarily simple. Although sentiment is swinging back in favor of nuclear power, many communities remain skeptical of nuclear power plants in their areas, let alone nuclear waste disposal. That\u2019s why storing everything in rural Nevada was long considered the easiest path. And the safety of Deep Isolation\u2019s approach must still be definitively proven, even if it works well on paper.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Baltzer knows the reality of the situation means Deep Isolation may have to develop its first commercial project internationally. The company is actively engaged with Bulgaria and other possible partners. And the initial project\u2014wherever it ends up\u2014is unlikely to come online until the early 2030s. That timing could still mesh nicely with the potential nuclear renaissance, so long as the U.S. regulatory system is reformed before then.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to bring our communities out, our regulators out, and let them kick the tires, and see how it works,\u201d Baltzer said.<\/p>\n

So, grab a helmet and head down to central Texas. Just beware of the snakes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#nuclear #startup #Halliburton #repurposed #oil #drilling #solve #radioactive #waste #problem<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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