Our Story
Our story began more than 200,000,000 years ago when the deep underground rock formations were being deposited in the primordial seas around the earth. However, our full involvement began about 23 years ago, in 1997 when our founder Dr. Henry Crichlow filed and published the first worldwide patented technology describing the embodiments for the use of deep horizontal wellbores for the safe disposal of nuclear waste products in these extremely old and deep geological formations.
A whole new epoch began in high level nuclear waste disposal.
Using this technology just didn’t happen overnight.
There were several hundred thousand wellbores drilled by the oil and gas industry worldwide under challenging and demanding conditions and at NuclearSAFE we have been able to utilize the worldwide scientific and engineering knowledgebase to develop, modify, optimize, patent and deploy an effective technology that addresses all the problems associated with safe, economical high level nuclear waste disposal.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Regardless of any assertions by others who claim inventorship of the technology to utilize deep horizontal wellbores to store nuclear waste, it should be pointed out that Dr. Henry Crichlow in 1997 was the first inventor/scientist to file a patent on the technology to safely and efficiently dispose of the millions of pounds of high level nuclear waste accumulating around the world.
The attached patent document provides the evidence and the embodiments and claims in the patent teach the technology.
Since that time, several additional patents have been filed by Dr. Crichlow and his associates on this novel technological approach.
This patent and the technology it represented, began a new era in the ways in which the world began to think about nuclear waste and the means by which the nuclear power industry can continue to operate and provide emission-free power for the world.
The NuclearSAFE Company
People Protecting the Planet™
THE INDUSTRY TODAY
THE “FERRIS WHEEL” SYSTEM
Some people have said that the current state of the High Level Nuclear Waste Industry is like a “Ferris Wheel”.
Recurrent annual contracting to replenish ongoing or new contracts that have resulted in little or no measurable success in safely disposing of the accumulating high level nuclear waste products across the country.
CHANGE IS NEEDED
OUR TECHNOLOGY
THE CRITICAL COMPONENT
A critical component of the NuclearSAFE technology is the application of the newest generation of oil well drilling hardware, software and technologies for command and control of the deep well drilling process, particularly in relation to large diameter horizontal and lateral wellbore drilling systems. These changes are not simple upgrades, they represent a massive leap forward in a robust technology that has been developed and honed by an industry that is mature and has probably the most sophisticated, supply-oriented, logistical command and control operations on the planet.
These operations range anywhere from the frozen Arctic, the Siberian theaters, deep offshore platforms in the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, the African Jungles, to the deep deserts of the Continental Africa or China. The oil and gas industry is one industry which knows how to reliably operate equipment that is sophisticated, complicated, and expensive in areas which are usually considered inhospitable, formidable and unreachable.
This leading-edge technology will for the first time, afford the nuclear power generation industry users around the world with a greater level of effectiveness by providing a verifiable, quantifiable and demonstrably safe system for sequestering these solid waste material for up to millions of years and still, at very economical cost levels.
An example of one tiny facet of the current industry was displayed by a start-up nuclear waste company that recently published an online video of showing a wireline operation they used to run a small metal sub (waste-capsule) into a wellbore and retrieving the sub. This type of operation is routinely and safely performed several hundred thousand times annually in the oil industry today with all types of downhole equipment under all types of operating conditions of pressure and temperature. These downhole tools and equipment may include; packers, plugs, pumps, baskets, hangers, perforators, over-shots, shoes, cups, valves, sensors, and calipers.
The NuclearSAFE proprietary, patented and patent pending technologies are focused on the following areas of concentration. The technologies starting in 1997 are supported by multiple patents and patent pending applications covering the following specific technological embodiments applied to high level nuclear waste disposal.
Vertical and Horizontal Wellbore Disposal Systems
Nuclear Waste Capsule Construction Methods
Nuclear Waste Capsule Emplacement Methods
Human-made Deep Underground Cavern Systems
Waste Disposal Methods & Systems
Disposal of High Level Radioactive Waste Liquids
Method & Systems for High Level Waste Volatiles Management
Weapons Grade Plutonium Disposal Systems
Optimal Location of Nuclear Waste Repositories
Self-Loading Capsule Systems
High Level Waste Vitrification Methods & Processes
Disposal of Depleted Uranium Munitions and Projectiles
Disposal of Uranium Hexafluoride & Products
High Level Waste System Construction Systems
TRANSFORMING THE INDUSTRY
NuclearSAFE has developed two different proprietary, patented and patent pending technological platforms and means of implementation of high level nuclear waste disposal to transform the industry as we know it today.
SuperLAT™
SuperSILO™
These two technologies combine the best available engineering, scientific, environmental, economic, safety and politically acceptable mechanisms to dispose of high level nuclear waste today.
SuperLAT™ Technology
NuclearSAFE designs and implements.
Engineered 15,000 foot long Lateral and Horizontal Wellbores drilled from a vertical wellbore between 10,000 and 25,000 feet deep.
SuperLAT™ Capacity of 1,000 waste capsules per lateral wellbore.
Each capsule contains 1 Metric Ton of high level waste.
One disposal site can dispose of 1,000,000 pounds of nuclear waste.
Each capsule can contain any of the following:
- Intact spent fuel rod assemblies
- Disassembled fuel rods
- Disassembled fuel pellets
- Vitrified glass cylinders
- Ceramic waste pellets
Any combination of the above to form a linear string of capsules.
SuperSILO™ Technology
ENGINEERED and patented Ultra-deep human-made caverns drilled and implemented in closed deep geological basins. The proprietary and patent-pending SuperSILO™ has nominal volumetric capacities in excess of 500,000 cubic feet of storage for high level waste products.
Many types of nuclear waste can be sequestered in the SuperSILO™.
ENGINEERED HUMAN-MADE CAVERNS
Capacity of 500,000 cubic feet or more volumetric capacity.
Caverns maximize efficiency and minimize operating costs.
Caverns have multiple uses in nuclear waste control.
Each cavern may contain any of the following:
- Intact spent fuel rod assemblies
- Disassembled fuel rods
- Disassembled fuel pellets
- Vitrified glass material in cylinder form
- Ceramic waste pellets
- Depleted uranium penetrators
- Uranium hexafluoride
- Various radioactive waste forms
- Liquid, cement, slurry, powder, pelletized wastes
Any combination of the above to form a linear string of capsules.
The NuclearSAFE Team
The NuclearSAFE team is working with to more than 20 professionals, including nuclear industry professionals from the major universities and technology companies worldwide. In addition, our staff works closely and cooperatively with the best in class oil well servicing and drilling companies and other talented professionals in all the required technology areas.
Mr. Gary Schneider MSc. P.E. – NuclearSAFE VP & Deep Drilling Expert
A professional engineer, manager and drilling expert with several decades of successful extensive international experience in all aspects of deep drilling and particularly lateral horizontal wells in complex deep formations. He has managed large complex drilling systems, also worked for major oil companies and worldwide contractors in a variety of capacities with emphasis on maximizing wellbore performance and drilling optimization and drilling management in all types of geological basins. He is an engineer with undergraduate and graduate degrees, B.Sc. Geology, M.Sc. Petroleum Engineering from the University of Oklahoma, and with 40+ years of experience, including a 20-year career working for drilling contractors. Drilling and completion projects have included deep, HTHP exploration and development wells, directional wells, and horizontal wells in both conventional reservoirs and in unconventional shale plays in numerous basins throughout the world. Designed drilling and completion programs for extended-reach horizontal wells and multi-lateral wells with multi-stage fracture stimulations. He has designed drilling and completion programs and provided supervision for various types of exploration and development wells in the U.S.: in Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Alaska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Louisiana, Wyoming, and California; and internationally: in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and South America. Assignments have included Drilling Superintendent, Drilling Engineer, Completion Engineer, Operations Engineer, Chief Engineer, Drilling Manager, and Project Manager.
Dr. Henry Crichlow Ph.D, P.E – NuclearSAFE CEO
Dr. Crichlow was a Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Head of the Departments of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Geological Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. He is a Professional Engineer with a Ph.D., from STANFORD UNIVERSITY; a MSc degree from the UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA and a B.Sc degree from COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES. He is an international energy consultant worldwide with a diversified portfolio of technological expertise. Over the past fifty years, he has researched and developed a combination engineering and scientific processes which allow the efficient utilization of engineering, modern drilling technologies, nuclear engineering developments and exploration mechanisms to provide viable solutions to nuclear waste disposal in deep geologic basins. These research efforts have led to multiple patents including several utility patents in the area of nuclear waste disposal. He was a founder and principal in several energy corporations and consulting companies. He developed techniques to train well service personnel in Oilwell Blowout Control systems. He developed a laboratory for research in oil recovery which he eventually sold to the US DoE. Dr. Crichlow also developed and implemented the contingency plans and recovery plans to extinguish the 740 burning oil wells in Kuwait in the recent Middle East Gulf War. He has been a technical expert witness in several successful multi-million dollar litigations nationwide.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Nuclear Engineering
Nuclear Engineering Operations
Nuclear Waste Systems
Drilling Operations
Horizontal Drilling Expert & Rig Design
Drilling Tools Expert & Operations
Drilling & Well Site Supervision
Tubular Goods Technologist
Geology/Management
Geochemistry/Petrophysics
Exploration Geophysicist
Mechanical Design/Waste
Design Engineer, CAD Specialist
Manufacturing Operations
Computational Fluids & Mechanical Engineer
Fluid Flow in Porous Media Scientists
Structural Design
Nanotechnology Scientist
Environmental Engineer & Scientist
Economist
Regulatory & Environment Law
IP & Patent Attorney Group
Chemical Engineering, Chemistry
Physical & Material Sciences
Data Scientist & AI systems
