Nuclear Waste Innovator Deep Isolation Confirms Safety and Readiness of Its Universal Canister System
Deep Isolation Successfully Completes Two-Year Project SAVANT Funded by US. Department of Energy
BERKELEY, Calif., Jan. 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Deep Isolation Nuclear, Inc. (“Deep Isolation” or the “Company”), a leading innovator in nuclear waste disposal technology, today announced the successful completion of Project SAVANT (Sequential Advancement of Technology for Deep Borehole Disposal), a two-year research initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E). The project found that Deep Isolation’s Universal Canister System (UCS) and borehole casing materials can sufficiently resist corrosion to safely store nuclear waste material, further validating the design and advancing the Company toward a full-scale deep borehole disposal demonstration.
Building on the project’s central objective, the project SAVANT team evaluated corrosion performance under realistic thermal, chemical, and mechanical stressors expected in a deep borehole environment. These data sets strengthen the scientific basis for Deep Isolation’s UCS and reinforce confidence in the system’s design life.
“This important study shows that Deep Isolation has achieved another critical milestone in the development of a safe method of disposing of radioactive nuclear waste – something the world critically needs,” said Rod Baltzer, Deep Isolation’s President and CEO. “Nuclear energy is facing a growing challenge. Global nuclear power capacity is forecast to increase by more than 300 GW by 2050, yet the world has not permanently disposed of any of the spent fuel it has created over the last 70 years. We believe our deep borehole technology will ultimately be the solution for safely and permanently disposal of nuclear waste deep underground, a solution the world needs.”
“The project SAVANT data significantly strengthens our understanding of how UCS and borehole system materials perform under the conditions expected in a deep geologic environment,” said Jesse Sloane, Executive VP of Engineering at Deep Isolation. “These results demonstrate wide margins of safety for the public and reinforce the robustness of our design approach. With these results in hand, we are well positioned to advance into larger scale testing.”
Stan Gingrich, Principal Engineer at Amentum and a project SAVANT collaborator, emphasized the importance of materials research in advancing disposal readiness. “The corrosion testing produced data representative of deep borehole disposal environments,” said Gingrich. “Our collaboration with Deep Isolation, including our co-authored paper on the results of materials under high temperature and pressure conditions (presented at Waste Management Symposia 2025), underscores how phased testing can bring innovative disposal solutions closer to reality.”
The project also incorporated supply chain research and cost estimation developed in partnership with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). These findings highlight opportunities to build domestic manufacturing pathways for canisters, casing materials, and deployment equipment that could accelerate commercial readiness and reduce lifecycle costs for future disposal facilities.
Project SAVANT supports a broader industry effort to modernize the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle. As nations expand advanced reactor deployment, durable and predictable disposal pathways are increasingly essential to long-term planning and public confidence. The project SAVANT findings provide new, data-driven insights that can guide future regulatory, commercial, and technical decision-making for deep borehole disposal.
About Deep Isolation
Deep Isolation is the first company to undertake development of technologies for nuclear waste disposal in deep boreholes. Deep Isolation has commenced a planned three-year initiative to complete a full-scale, at-depth demonstration of its Universal Canister System and deep borehole solution, a critical milestone to the company’s commercialization strategy. When commercialized, Deep Isolation’s solution will offer a uniquely tailored solution to help countries identify, plan for and complete the necessary steps to dispose of their nuclear waste inventories. With 91 patents issued to date, Deep Isolation’s technology is being designed to leverage proven drilling practices to allow safe isolation of waste deep underground in horizontal, vertical, or slanted borehole repositories. Deep Isolation’s Universal Canister System was developed through a three-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy and is engineered to support integrated management of spent fuel and high-level waste from advanced reactors across storage, transportation and eventual disposal.
For more information, visit: deepisolation.com
Media Contact:
Sophie McCallum
Investor Contact:
Caldwell Bailey
InvestorRelations@deepisolation.com
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements contained in this news release that are not historical facts are “forward-looking information” or “forward-looking statements” (collectively, “forward-looking statements”) within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our plans, objectives and expectations for our business, the future growth of our business and the nuclear energy and nuclear waste disposal industries as a whole, and future benefits expected to arise from our strategic partnerships. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words and phrases or variations of words and phrases or statements such as “may,” “should,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “will,” “could,” “project,” “target,” “potential,” “continue” and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on management’s belief and assumptions, including current expectations and projections about future events and trends, and on information currently available to management.
Forward-looking statements in this or any other news release are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties, and assumptions are subject to a number of factors, including, among others: the failure of a market to develop for our deep borehole disposal solutions as quickly as we expect or at all; a failure of demand for our solution to develop sufficiently; regulatory and legal developments, including issues relating to obtaining regulatory approvals or permissions on the timelines we expect or at all; our lack of profitability; delays or failure in our initiative to complete a full-scale, at-depth demonstration of our Universal Canister System and our deep borehole solution; our failure to enter into contracts with customers or, once we do enter into contracts, to continue such contractual relationships or to receive new contract awards; our dependency on governmental contracts and awards; our failure to manage our growth effectively or to execute our business plan; a failure to sustain and expand relationships with governmental entities and strategic partners; failure in the assumptions or analyses we have used in supporting forecasts or plans; our inability to commercialize our products at scale; the development or deployment of other technologies or solutions supplanting or competing with our technologies; challenges to our intellectual property; failures to protect, maintain, enforce, and enhance our intellectual property, and claims by others of intellectual property infringement; political and public perceptions of nuclear energy, including perceptions as to accidents or other high-profile events involving nuclear power facilities or radioactive materials; our liquidity and ability to raise capital; any inability to control operating and project costs and project delays or other project-related problems; security (including cybersecurity) breaches or disruptions; geopolitical, macroeconomic, domestic events or crises, including supply chain disruptions and other risks and uncertainties outside of our control; weather and effects of climate change; and litigation or legal proceedings that may be brought against us.
The foregoing is not an exhaustive list of all the factors that may cause any forward-looking statements to prove inaccurate or our actual results to differ materially from our expectations and forecasts. Moreover, we operate in a highly regulated environment. New risks emerge from time to time. It is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements we may make. In light of these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, the future events and trends discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements, and we cannot guarantee future results, performance, or achievements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this release or to conform these statements to actual results or revised expectations, except as required by law.
Additional information concerning the factors above and other factors will be found in the Company’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including the sections titled “Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2025 filed with the SEC on November 14, 2025 and in filings with the SEC that will be made. The Company’s SEC filings are available free of charge at www.sec.gov filed or upon written request to Deep Isolation Nuclear at InvestorRelations@deepisolation.com.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a7c9fe26-d515-49ea-8a98-10de0539e3d9
Deep Isolation
Nuclear Waste Innovator Deep Isolation Confirms Safety and Readiness of Its Universal Canister System
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
