Deep Isolation and Halliburton to pilot ultra-deep borehole for nuclear waste storage

Deep Isolation Nuclear and Halliburton plan to drill a two-mile-deep borehole in Texas to bury 5,000-pound nuclear waste canisters as a permanent disposal method.

A demonstration center in central Texas, operated by Deep Isolation Nuclear with Halliburton, is preparing to drill a test borehole that will place 5,000-pound nuclear waste canisters two miles below the surface. The project leverages oil-industry advances in deep, directional drilling to offer a permanent disposal method, contrasting with the stalled Yucca Mountain repository and the growing inventory of over 95,000 metric tons of spent fuel stored at about 80 sites nationwide.

Deep Isolation CEO Rod Baltzer and executive vice president Jesse Sloane say the technology could enable waste placement near reactors and support a Trump-administration goal of quadrupling nuclear capacity by 2050. Halliburton will use an oversized drill bit and a “hole opener” to create a 22-inch-wide shaft, then demonstrate crane-based retrieval of each canister. The effort has attracted DOE grants for AI-based site selection and is looking toward commercial projects, possibly abroad, with an expected rollout in the early 2030s pending regulatory reforms.