US-based nuclear waste disposal technology company Deep Isolation Nuclear has begun site preparation activities at its deep borehole demonstration centre in Texas.
The company said the work marks an early milestone under an April 2026 federal agreement to help promising energy technologies move from the lab to commercial-scale pilot deployment.
That agreement saw Deep Isolation selected for the US Department of Energy’s ARPA-E Scaleup Ready programme, which committed up to $40m (€35.9m) to support two projects, including the Deep Isolation project.
The site preparation includes construction of a well pad that will provide the foundation for drilling, casing and cementing operations needed to construct the demonstration borehole.
Construction of the well pad is forecasted to complete by December 2026. Following completion of the surface infrastructure, drilling and borehole completion activities are expected to begin.
Deep Isolation said the work represents the next major milestone in its multi-year commercialisation pilot project and advances the world’s first full-scale, at-depth demonstration of deep borehole technology for the permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.
Once drilling is complete, the site will be ready to support the surface handling, deployment and retrieval equipment used to emplace and recover Deep Isolation’s canister system. The demonstration will use non-radioactive packages to simulate full radiological repository operations.
Deep Isolation’s borehole disposal technology isolates waste deep underground in borehole repositories. The company says its universal canister system is engineered to support the management of spent fuel and high-level waste from advanced reactors across storage, transportation and eventual disposal.
