Deep Fission Installs and Retrieves Underground Reactor

Deep Fission wants to put nuclear reactors a mile underground. A recent test demonstrated the reality of that vision. A standard commercial drilling crew lowered a 20-foot canister 100 feet underground. Then, the company lifted it from the 34-inch-wide hole. This was a much smaller scale than what Deep Fission wants to do, but it gives the company a good idea of its possibilities.

The test proved how Deep Fission plans to install and retrieve its real reactors. On the plus side, no new equipment is needed to conduct the burial and retrieval.

Using Existing Industries

Deep Fission makes small pressurized water reactors called the Gravity Nuclear Reactor. The plan is to put them a full mile underground.

Instead of inventing new ways to dig or new ways to make power, the company combines two existing industries. It uses standard commercial drilling equipment and standard reactor technology running on regular low-enriched uranium fuel.

“The most important thing about this demonstration is what we did not have to do,” said Liz Muller, CEO and Co-Founder of Deep Fission. “We did not have to develop new technology. We used a rig and rigging that is commercially available in the field today, and our reactor uses pressurized water technology that has been operating in the nuclear industry for decades. Our innovation is in how we put proven pieces together, not in inventing something that has never been built. That is the difference between a science project and something you can deploy.”

Reactors a Mile Deep

The surrounding rock and the water column naturally provide containment, heat transfer, operating pressure, and emergency cooling.

As a result, the company doesn’t need to build massive, complicated facilities on the surface. Deep Fission expects the underground setup to cut construction costs, shorten schedules, and improve safety margins.