The Race to Solve Nuclear Waste Storage | Rod Baltzer

Deep Isolation CEO Rod Baltzer joins Going Nuclear to discuss one of the least understood but most important challenges facing the future of nuclear energy: long-term nuclear waste disposal. The conversation explores how Deep Isolation is applying advanced directional drilling technology from the oil and gas sector to create deep borehole disposal systems designed to safely isolate spent nuclear fuel far underground for thousands of years. Rod explains the current bottlenecks surrounding nuclear waste management, the economics of storage and disposal, and why solving the backend of the fuel cycle is becoming increasingly important as small modular reactors and advanced nuclear technologies scale globally. From public market ambitions and international partnerships to the engineering behind disposal canisters and horizontal boreholes, this episode offers a rare deep dive into the future of nuclear waste infrastructure.