Deep Isolation Raises Over $10 Million in Funding to Solve Nuclear Waste Gridlock

Berkeley, CA – Deep Isolation, a leading innovator in nuclear waste disposal solutions, has closed its oversubscribed Seed Round. To date, the company received a total of just over $10 million from a diverse group of individual investors and expects to open its next round of funding in 2019. Investments support Deep Isolation’s efforts to commercialize a new approach to nuclear waste disposal, in the United States and internationally.

The group of approximately 30 investors is composed of environmentalists, venture capitalists investing their personal funds, successful entrepreneurs, as well as concerned citizens. There has been no institutional investment to date. The Seed Round included a crowdfunding component, which allowed smaller investors to participate in the round. All investors shared the company’s vision for solving an important environmental problem and demonstrated confidence in both the technology and the leadership team.

“I believe Deep Isolation has a breakthrough solution to a vexing problem” states David Marquardt, Founding Partner at August Capital and one of Deep Isolation’s early investors. “I am excited to see the company address nuclear waste with an innovative safe and economic solution. The market is large, barriers to entry high, and no viable alternatives.”

“Deep Isolation’s fundraising success is a sign of investor recognition of the importance of solving this problem, the enormous market opportunity, and confidence in our business approach,” said Elizabeth Muller, Deep Isolation CEO. “We are honored to have such a large variety of individuals coming together, adding many salient perspectives to this important topic. The lack of disposal options is forcing us to use temporary storage as a long-term reality, and experts agree that we need permanent solutions. With the support from our investors, Deep Isolation is taking the steps needed to prove that we can satisfy this need at home and around the world.”

Deep Isolation became the first company to successfully place and retrieve a prototype disposal canister from a deep horizontal drill hole in 2018. The test was a major milestone for the company and a leap forward for the industry. Their solution applies well-established directional drilling technologies used in the oil & gas industry, to place nuclear waste in the horizontal portion of a drill hole at a depth of several thousand feet below the Earth’s surface.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, there are approximately 400 thousand tons of radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants worldwide. No country has an operating solution for spent fuel disposal. Deep Isolation technology provides a safe and complementary permanent solution for nuclear waste disposal.

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About Deep Isolation
Berkeley based Deep Isolation is a leading innovator in nuclear waste disposal solutions. Founded through a passion for environmental stewardship, scientific ingenuity, and American entrepreneurship, Deep Isolation’s world-class team of experts has developed a patented solution using directional drilling to safely secure waste deep underground. For more information, contact info@deepisolation.com.