DEEP DISPOSAL | TECHNICAL
an industry which drills more than 61,000,000m of horizontal wellbores each year in the United States alone. It is robust, reliable, rapid, and easily replicable. Existing drill rig systems have the necessary mechanical capacity and operational versatility to drill and ream out large diameter horizontal wellbores 3000m below the surface while rigs have lift capacity in excess of 450 tonnes dead weight. This equipment is standard, currently active and drilling wells the world round. The required types of high-level waste horizontal wellbores can be realistically drilled today. There are thousands of horizontal wellbores in which a multiplicity of down- hole tools, production equipment, and completion systems are in use today in oil and gas exploration. If required, high-level waste can be deconstructed and reconstructed to fit into cylinders at the dimensions deemed most efficient, and the wellbore can be engineered to fit. As an economic way to make available deep
geological repositories in a short time and at relatively low cost, it stands in stark contrast to current methods. Furthermore, a massive base of technological knowledge exists, with experienced technical services companies who can support implementation. The horizontal wellbore is also lined with multiple
steel casings and surrounded by a well-designed cement matrix. This provides yet another secure layer, in addition to the natural protection of the impermeable rock repository formation as shown in Figure 2. Cylindrical waste capsules can be robotically inserted
from the surface, through the vertical section before ‘landing’ safely in the horizontal wellbore. Resting the capsules horizontally in the wellbore eliminates any added weight which occurs when stacking vertically. The individual waste capsules inside are sealed in place, many thousands of metres below the ecosphere, in a hydraulically closed rock zone. After storing capsules safely in the repository, the vertical wellbore can be sealed. A simple surface marker is all that remains where a 40,000 tonne atomic bomb was successfully detonated more than 2500m underground during operations to stimulate (frack) the deep gas bearing shale formations in Colorado. After the deep horizontal repository system is closed permanently a similar surface marker would be the only visible reminder that tonnes of nuclear waste are buried thousands of metres below the surface. Additional warnings against intrusive drilling within several miles of the site would also be required. Storing the waste so deep would also render any retrieval efforts by bad actors practically impossible.
PROTECTING GROUNDWATER Even after decades without any significant progress or success, groups continue to follow each others’ lead, excavating and developing mining systems in near surface waste repositories in or near the water table. Without U V exception, geologists agree that these near surface rocks are fissured and fractured - it is a fact of nature. The presence of these fissures and fractures
allows fluid migration to occur. Many recent studies have concluded that surface rainwater may reach these repository layers in less than 50 years, creating corrosion problems for the stored capsules. This has been technically confirmed by analysis in migrating surface rainwaters. For example, chlorine-36 is a chlorine radionuclide,
present in rainwater at certain stable and predictable concentrations. It can be used to ‘fingerprint’ water with respect to age. Chlorine-36 occurs in all rainwater trickling down to near surface mines and tunnels. The presence of this isotope in water in these near surface systems is a flashing red light. Elevated ratios of Chlorine-36 found in what is nominally called ‘modern water’ has been caused by the detonations associated with atomic bomb testing in the atmosphere in the 1950s. Those high ratios did not exist pre-1950s. It indicates that in the near surface HLW disposal systems, ‘modern water’ has reached downward into these disposal zones.
NOT TO SCALE
SuperLAT™ S drilling rig 1,000 feet Natural fractures in brittle igneous rock
Titanium drip shields
SuperLAT™
vertical wellbore >10,000 feet SuperLAT™ horizontal wellbore with capsules Impermeable formations - isolated for tens of millions of years
Above, figure 2: The SuperLATTM System compared to Yucca Mt.
Repository rock
Steel Cement Steel Passivated copper container Spent fuel bundle Above, figure 3: Nuclear waste capsule in horizontal wellbore July 2023 | 45
Wellbore Cement
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