Deep Isolation, a nuclear waste disposal startup, said Tuesday it wants to raise $10 million to $15 million in venture capital investment
The company is developing a borehole disposal concept, in which fuel assemblies containing spent fuel rods are placed in a canister and buried some 2,000 feet below the surface in a very narrow, L-shaped tunnel. After the L-tunnel’s horizontal section is filled with canisters, the boreholes would be sealed with rock, bentonite, and other materials.
The Series A round the company hopes to jump start would help it “to identify specific sites, begin rock characterization, and start drilling,” Elizabeth Muller, Deep Isolation’s chief executive officer, wrote in Tuesday’s press release. “Community and stakeholder engagement will continue to be a major focus and remains a core competency.”
Previously, Deep Isolation raised roughly $14 million in angel and seed rounds from investors, friends, and members of the company. The company said it has also raised $5 million of in-kind support.
Deep Isolation also has arrangements with NAC International and Bechtel. NAC International, the spent nuclear fuel storage and transportation provider, will produce canister technology for Deep Isolation. Bechtel, under a 2019 memorandum of understanding, will provide Deep Isolation with project management, business, and engineering support in exchange for later support on environmental remediation programs for the federal government.
In early 2019, Deep Isolation demonstrated its prototype canister at an undisclosed commercial oil and gas testing facility near Austin, Texas. The demonstration canister held a nonradioactive steel rod. It was lowered down an existing drill hole, after which a small “tractor” pushed it into place in a horizontal storage space. The same device was then used to bring the canister back to the surface after several hours.
