Disposal of High-Level Nuclear Waste in Deep Horizontal Drillholes

Muller, Richard A.; Finsterle, Stefan; Grimsich, John; Baltzer, Rod; Muller, Elizabeth A.; Rector, James W.; Payer, Joe; Apps, John

doi:10.3390/en12112052

Disposal of High-Level Nuclear Waste in Deep Horizontal Drillholes

Journal Article · Wed May 29 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Energies

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/en12112052· OSTI ID:1572822

Muller, Richard A. ^[1]; ^[2]; Grimsich, John ^[1]; Baltzer, Rod ^[1]; Muller, Elizabeth A. ^[1]; Rector, James W. ^[3]; Payer, Joe ^[4]; Apps, John ^[5]

Deep Isolation Inc., Berkeley, CA (United States)
Finsterle GeoConsulting, Kensington, CA (United States)
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of Akron, OH (United States)
Geochemistry Consultant, Lafayette, CA (United States)

Spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste can be disposed in deep horizontal drillholes in sedimentary, metamorphic or igneous rocks. Horizontal drillhole disposal has safety, operational and economic benefits: the repository is deep in the brine-saturated zone far below aquifers in a reducing environment of formations that can be shown to have been isolated from the surface for exceedingly long times; its depth provides safety against inadvertent intrusion, earthquakes and near-surface perturbations; it can be placed close to the reactors and interim storage facilities, minimizing transportation; disposal costs per ton of waste can be kept substantially lower than for mined repositories by its smaller size, reduced infrastructure needs and staged implementation; and, if desired, the waste could be retrieved using “fishing” technology. In the proposed disposal concept, corrosion-resistant canisters containing unmodified fuel assemblies from commercial reactors would be placed end-to-end in up to 50 cm diameter horizontal drillholes, a configuration that reduces mechanical stresses and keeps the temperatures below the boiling point of the brine. Other high-level wastes, such as capsules containing ¹³⁷Cs and ⁹⁰Sr, can be disposed in small-diameter horizontal drillholes. We provide an overview of this novel disposal concept and its technology, discuss some of its safety aspects and compare it to mined repositories and the deep vertical borehole disposal concept.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1572822

Journal Information:: Energies, Journal Name: Energies Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 12; ISSN 1996-1073; ISSN ENERGA

Publisher:: MDPI AGCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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