New Nuclear Waste Borehole Demonstration Center opens.
Deep Isolation, a California-based company, has launched a "Deep Borehole Demonstration Center" to demonstrate that disposal of nuclear waste in deep boreholes is a safe and practical alternative to mined tunnels. The center will test everything from safe handling of waste canisters to disposal, possible retrieval, and eventual permanent sealing deep underground. The company is designing a new universal canister that can fit into a borehole and take waste generated by different reactor designs. The depth of boreholes should make them suitable for a variety of locations, reducing the need to ship nuclear waste to a centralized facility.