Ground has been broken on the revolutionary underground nuclear power plant in Kansas.
Deep Fission has started work on the small nuclear reactor it intends to build one mile underground in the town of Parsons, a city just north of the Oklahoma state line and north of Bartlesville.
The construction is underway at the Great Plains Industrial Park which is a former site of the Kansas Army Ammunition Plant. The city has hopes of attracting data centers which consume large amounts of power and lead to higher charges for ratepayers, including residential customers.
The company CEO, Liz Muller told NPR affiliate KCUR the company will not consume large amounts of water, a worry and concern often voiced by opponents and critics of data centers.
Instead, Deep Fision has a partnership with Endeavor, parent company of Edge, a firm that manufactures waterless data centers. Muller also says any radioactive waste from the plant would remain underground and “billions of tons of rock.”
In a press release, Deep Fission stated that Parsons offers the opportunity to “potentially grow the Park for decades to come.”
Muller founded Deep Fission in 2023 with her father, University of California, Berkeley professor emeritus of physics Rich Muller. The idea behind the company is to drill 30-inch-wide, mile-deep holes and place small nuclear reactors at the bottom. Water will be placed in the holes, where it will turn to steam and rise to turn turbines, generating energy. The water will then cool and return to the hole for reuse.
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