Abyssal Nuclear Waste Sequestration via Gravity-Driven Fractures

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Current methods for disposing of nuclear waste are unsafe and unreliable, lacking a reliable on-site solution for long-term isolation, with existing facilities facing political and technical challenges in maintaining 10,000-year isolation from the biosphere.

Innovation Solution

A method involving the creation of hydraulic fractures driven by gravity, using a dense fluid containing nuclear waste mixed with weighting materials to propagate downward, ensuring permanent isolation by exceeding the rock's density and continuing until immobilization, thus eliminating the need for off-site transport and temporary storage.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If nuclear waste is stored in water pools at reactor sites, then temporary storage is provided, but safety and reliability are compromised due to vulnerability to natural disasters and technical failures

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesafety and reliability of waste storageVSAvoidvulnerability to natural disasters and technical failures

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The invention extracts the waste storage function from vulnerable above-ground facilities and relocates it to deep subterranean geological formations, removing the storage system from the harmful environment of surface-level natural disasters and technical failures

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The invention transitions waste storage from a two-dimensional surface-level pool system to a three-dimensional deep geological formation system, utilizing vertical depth as an additional dimension of protection and isolation

Inventive Principle:

Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

2Ease of manufacture

If nuclear waste is transported to off-site disposal facilities, then centralized disposal is achieved, but transportation risks and political opposition increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecentralized disposal capabilityVSAvoidtransportation risks and political opposition

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The invention performs preliminary action by establishing on-site injection capabilities at reactor locations, eliminating the need for future waste transportation and avoiding the political and security issues associated with moving radioactive materials through populated areas

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The invention converts the previously harmful aspect of waste being a burden requiring transportation into a benefit by enabling direct on-site injection, transforming the waste management problem into a simplified local operation that eliminates transportation risks

Inventive Principle:

Principle #22Blessing in disguise (Convert harm into benefit)

3Productivity

If nuclear waste is disposed at shallow depths in current repositories, then disposal capacity is provided, but long-term isolation from the biosphere cannot be guaranteed

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedisposal capacityVSAvoidlong-term isolation from the biosphere

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The invention changes the critical parameter of disposal depth from shallow (current repositories) to ultra-deep (greater than 1000 meters), fundamentally altering the isolation conditions and ensuring long-term separation from the biosphere through the overlying rock formations

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

Solution Approach 2:

The invention provides beforehand cushioning by using thick layers of intact rock above the waste injection zone as a protective barrier, pre-positioning multiple geological layers that will cushion and prevent any potential migration of radionuclides to the biosphere

Inventive Principle:

Principle #11Beforehand cushioning (Prior cushioning)

Applied Scientific Principles

This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.

Function Achieved in This Case

This approach effectively isolates nuclear waste from human activities and the biosphere for relevant timescales, achieving long-term storage without the need for extensive transportation or temporary storage, ensuring safety and reliability in nuclear waste disposal.

Implementation Method 1

hydraulic fractures driven by gravity... using a dense fluid containing nuclear waste mixed with weighting materials to propagate downward

Methodology Applied

Scientific EffectGravity: Gravitation

Data Source

PatentUS10629315B2Abyssal sequestration of nuclear waste and other types of hazardous waste

Publication Date: 2020.04.21 GRAND ABYSS LLC

AI summary

A system and method of disposing nuclear waste and other hazardous waste includes means for, and the steps of, blending a waste stream, which includes either a radioactive waste or a hazardous waste (or both), with a liquid and, optionally, a solid material to produce a dense fluid and pumping the dense fluid into a tubing string of an injection boring. The dense fluid then exits a perforation in a casing of the injection boring and enters a fracture in a rock strata, where it continues to propagate downward until it reaches an immobilization point. The dense fluid may be a slurry formed by a metal and a cross-linked polymer gel or hydrated clay slurry. The metal can be one that has a melting temperature less than the temperature at the bottom of the injection boring. The solid material could also be other nuclear waste or a radionuclide.