The U.S. Department of Energy has backed a plan by nuclear technology company Deep Fission to advance its small modular reactor concept, which would place the reactor deep underground.
Through the federal government's Reactor Pilot Program, Deep Fission validated its nuclear safety design agreement, setting the technical framework for its reactor, called Gravity. The company says the project aims to reshape future energy infrastructure.
Unlike conventional nuclear facilities that occupy large surface areas, Deep Fission's design places a pressurized water reactor almost 1.5 kilometers underground inside a drilled well. The facility uses nuclear technology that is already widely tested and known in the industry, but the underground configuration is meant to simplify deployment, minimize the environmental and surface footprint, and use the geology itself to improve safety and reduce costs.
A Solution Designed to Supply the Grid
The recent government approval does not yet authorize construction of the reactor. It confirms that the concept meets safety requirements to move forward into the next phases of engineering and regulatory review.
Liz Muller, co-founder and chief executive of Deep Fission, said the milestone was a major step that would help speed up the project's development ahead of the demonstration stage. She said the company's nearest goal is to complete the remaining technical evaluations needed to secure authorization for its first operating unit.
The project already has tangible progress at its pilot site in Parsons, Kansas, within the Great Plains Industrial Park. There, work crews have drilled a data-acquisition well more than 1,800 meters deep and received the first prototype of the reactor's containment vessel. The next phases will require drilling larger-diameter wells and installing additional equipment to gather the technical data needed to support future licensing steps.
Plans for a Commercial Power Plant
Unlike other experimental programs that limit testing to laboratory trials, Deep Fission intends explicitly to turn its pilot plant into a fully operational commercial power station capable of supplying electricity to the grid. If the underground demonstration succeeds, the company says it will have proven not only that nuclear technology can be buried underground, but also introduced a new model for deploying clean, compact and safe energy in the coming decades.
