DOE Moves Forward With Deep Borehole Waste Storage Test

The Department of Energy on Tuesday said it had selected a team headed by the Battelle Memorial Institute to drill a 16,000-foot borehole in North Dakota to test the use of such formations for storage of high-level radioactive waste.

The department in a press release identified the test hole as a key measure in studying the feasibility of using deep boreholes in crystalline rock formations as permanent repositories for such waste. The projected $35 million, five-year project on 20 acres of land near Rugby, N.D., “will provide insights into crosscutting subsurface science and engineering challenges such as drilling techniques, wellbore stability and sealing, and subsurface characterization,” according to DOE.

The research team will study the hydrogeological, geochemical, and geomechanical characteristics of the rock deep into the Earth, the release says. Large amounts of information will be collected during the drilling and further testing will be conducted afterward, DOE said. The test will not involve use of any actual radioactive material.

 

It has been more than four decades since scientists proposed use of miles-deep holes in granite to permanently store waste that was the byproduct of nuclear weapons production. The Obama administration’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, which was established after the suspension of the Yucca Mountain geologic repository project, suggesting studying deep boreholes “particularly as a disposal alternative for certain forms of waste that have essentially no potential for re-use.”

The administration’s current waste storage plan calls for using separate repositories for defense and commercial waste. The Department of Energy in late December began taking public comment on siting of locations for storage of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.

The deep borehole research team consists of Battelle, the University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center, Schlumberger, and Swizterland-based Solexperts.