Deep Fission Launches Groundbreaking Nuclear Project in Kansas

Haley Zaremba

Haley Zaremba is a writer and journalist based in Mexico City. She has extensive experience writing and editing environmental features, travel pieces, local news in the…

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• Deep Fission has started drilling for its first-of-a-kind “gravity reactor” project in Kansas, which places a 15-megawatt reactor 6,000 feet underground to cut operational costs by up to 80%.
• The gravity reactor design utilizes the Earth’s natural geology, where a column of water at that depth provides the necessary pressure for the reactor to function, eliminating the need for massive and expensive surface pressure vessels.
• Deep Fission is part of a growing field of “next-gen” nuclear startups focused on making power production quicker and cheaper, with a major focus on developing modular and scalable designs like small modular reactors (SMRs).

Deep Fission has finally broken ground on its cutting-edge power project in the Great Plains Industrial Park in Parsons, Kansas. The innovative start-up seeks to turn traditional nuclear power production on its head by burying it deep, deep underground – and slashing nuclear energy operational costs by up to 80 percent in the process. 

“Drilling our first borehole is a major step forward,” said Liz Muller, CEO and Co-Founder of Deep Fission. “It represents the shift from concept to construction and begins the process of demonstrating a fundamentally new approach to nuclear energy deployment.”

The firm is piloting a (literally) groundbreaking  “gravity reactor” model, which places a 15-megawatt (MWe) pressurized water reactor (PWR) at the bottom of a mile-deep borehole. By burying a nuclear reactor deep under the ground – around 6,000 feet deep in the case of this first pilot model – the company claims that the force of gravity will do the work of a whole slew of expensive machinery for free. 

“By utilizing Earth’s natural geology, the design achieves several breakthroughs,” Interesting Engineering wrote in a December report. “At a depth of one mile, a column of water naturally provides the 160 atmospheres of pressure required for the reactor to function, which eliminates the need for massive and expensive surface pressure vessels.” 

Finding cheaper ways to construct, maintain, and operate nuclear power plants has become an increasing priority for the public and private sector alike as the once-maligned form of power production regains favor at a global scale. As the global energy trilemma – the challenge of providing energy that is simultaneously affordable, reliable, and sustainable – becomes more dire in the face of nearing climate pledge deadlines and global energy security crises, nuclear energy has reentered energy strategies around the world as a critical part of the solution. It’s a proven technology that can produce carbon-free energy around the clock, and advocates say that we can no longer afford to ignore these benefits.

But traditional nuclear fusion is an extremely expensive endeavor, with massive up-front costs and miles of red tape standing in the way of building new reactors. Plant Vogtle, the only new nuclear reactor the United States has built in the last several decades racked up a tab of $35 billion after years and years of delays. Instead of revitalizing the U.S. nuclear sector, it significantly cooled enthusiasm amongst would-be investors.

But next-gen nuclear power promises to be quicker and cheaper to install and operate. Deep Fission says that their design will deliver massive savings and enhanced safety, thanks to the modular nature of its models and the protection that the surrounding bedrock will provide to the buried reactors. While the firm has just barely broken ground on its first real-world trial, it is confident that their model could soon produce significant amounts of energy.

“The modular nature of the system allows for significant scalability,” Interesting Engineering reported this week. “While a single borehole produces 15 MWe, the company notes that 100 reactors co-located on a single site could produce 1.5 GWe—enough to power large-scale industrial hubs or massive data center complexes—while requiring only a fraction of the land used by traditional surface plants.”

And Deep Fission is just one of a now crowded field of startups racing to unlock the key of next-gen nuclear fission. One of the biggest focuses of nuclear innovation is the development of small modular reactors (SMRs) which will make nuclear energy more scalable and streamlined, lowering up-front development costs and approval timelines. These mini-reactors can be mass-produced offsite and then assembled where they are needed, avoiding the slow and expensive bespoke design and permitting process of traditional nuclear plants. Already, two SMR models have been approved for rollout in the United States, and a slew of additional models are in the pipeline. 

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com 

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