30 OCTOBER 2023 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Deep Borehole Demonstration from Texas Heads to Norway Adapted from Information by Deep Isolation The Deep Borehole Demonstration Center has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate on demonstration of deep borehole disposal for nuclear waste in Norway, in addition to its work in Cameron, Texas. The center is an independent, nonprofit, science-driven organization with the goal of advancing the case for safe deep borehole disposal of nuclear waste through its multiyear program to deliver an end-toend, nonradioactive demonstration of deep borehole disposal. The MOU was signed with Norsk Kjernekraft, a newly established Norwegian company with the goal of building and operating Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in Norway, as the country phases out fossil fuel energy production. The Center’s Executive Director Ted Garrish (former Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy) said, “It is an exciting development to collaborate with Norsk Kjernekraft to explore opportunities for [a] demonstration of borehole disposal technology in Norway. At the technical level, Norway’s crystalline rock, including granite, is a very different geology to the center’s initial shale environment in Texas - so it helps demonstrate the wide variety of rock types that offer safe and effective options for deep borehole disposal. Further, it demonstrates that Europe’s SMR industry is rightly focused on the need to engage with communities in planning for waste disposal right from the outset.” Jonny Hesthammer CEO of Norsk Kjernekraft said, “Norsk Kjernekraft is passionate about the benefits that nuclear power will bring to Norway’s net-zero energy market - and to achieve these, we must show the communities we work in that there are practical solutions available to put the resulting waste safely and permanently out of contact with the biosphere. Deep borehole disposal is a technology that offers huge potential benefits to Norway - for our communities, and for our world-leading drilling industry - so I am delighted to be working with the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center to demonstrate this technology here in Norway.” To learn more about the Deep Borehole Demonstration project, read Deep Isolation Uses HDD for Possible Nuclear Waste Solution on page 11 of the November 2022 issue of WorldWide Drilling Resource®. Editor’s Note: In between our print issues, the WWDR Team prepares an electronic newsletter called E-News Flash by WorldWide by WorldWide Drilling Resource®. This newsletter is filled with articles not included in our print issue. Based on readership, this was the most popular article of the month. Get in on the action and subscribe today at: worldwidedrillingresource.com DIR Dry cask storage at the Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. Around the world, more than 540,000 tons of spent radioactive fuel is temporarily stored in pools and dry casks aboveground. No spent nuclear fuel anywhere in the world has been placed in a permanent repository.
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