Adoption of small modular reactors grows - spent nuclear fuel waste technology must keep pace

In addition to overcoming many of the flaws of at and near-surface storage, the wellbore system can also be implemented more rapidly and efficiently. Constructing near-surface repositories takes time and money, as much as four decades and billions of dollars. Furthermore, many things could render a site unusable, the time and money a total loss.

Conversely, lateral wellbores can be drilled and completed in 100 days, for a cost of only USD $35 million. Problems will be known within 60 days, allowing a rapid and inexpensive re-boot. Once a wellbore is complete, the rig can be moved and start drilling again only 200 feet away. The fully automatic system robotically controls loading the waste-capsules, which are prepared off site. Rather than the thousands of workers required for near-surface repositories, SuperLAT^TM uses less than 30 professionals.

The simplicity, safety, reliability, and cost efficiency of this system would enable the growth of a waste disposal system which can keep pace with the spent nuclear fuel waste produced by growing nuclear power generation. With climate change and energy prices rising alongside energy demand, implementing SuperLAT™ wellbores as the means for nuclear waste disposal worldwide enables carbon-free nuclear power to continue to grow.