Up to today, the nuclear industry has focused single-mindedly on a near-surface cave or tunnel approach for the long-term disposal of high-level waste. In the United States, it was Yucca Mountain; in Canada, the Deep Geological Repository project; and in Europe, the KBS-3 disposal concept. These systems all have been perceived to have major environmental, scientific, economic, and political problems. There is, however, an engineering solution: wellbores. This technology was first researched, developed, and patented (U.S. 5,850,614) in the 1990s and has been discussed at professional conferences. A working system of deep lateral wellbores can be engineered in closed geological basins to provide an operating volume for the safe, long-term sequestration of high-level waste capsules. Wellbores are not boreholes. Boreholes are essentially just holes in the ground. A wellbore is a geological engineered system that provides a secure operating volume, implemented within multiple layers of high-strength steel, cemented annuli, and preventative media to provide a reliable closed system for long-term spent fuel disposal.
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