NSPS Series 3: Cutting Waste Storage Costs

Kavin Venkat
14 hours ago
3 min read

The hidden costs of waiting for radioactivity to fade away add up fast. So do the decades it takes for garbage to decompose in landfills. Exlterra's NSPS technology offers a practical solution to both problems, potentially revolutionizing how industries handle radioactive waste storage.

The Radioactive Waste Storage Problem

When oil and gas companies drill wells, they often use radioactive tracers to track where fluids go underground. Proppant sand gets labeled with isotopes like iridium-192 or silver-110m so engineers can monitor fracturing patterns. When that sand comes back up, it's radioactive.

The same thing happens naturally. Deep underground formations contain naturally occurring radioactive materials like radium and uranium. When drilling brings these materials to the surface, they become what regulators call TENORM—Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material. This stuff has to be stored until it's safe enough to dispose of as regular waste.

Here's the problem: that waiting period can stretch for years or even decades, depending on which isotopes you're dealing with. Iridium-192 has a half-life of 74 days, which means you're waiting months just to get it halfway to safe. Cobalt-60, another common tracer, has a half-life of over 5 years. Storage facilities have to hold this material, monitor it, secure it, and maintain expensive infrastructure the entire time.

The costs pile up quickly. You need specialized storage facilities with proper shielding, security systems, regulatory compliance staff, and ongoing monitoring. For large operations, this can mean millions of dollars tied up in storage operations. And that's just for the material from one well or one facility.

How NSPS can change the Storage Equation

NSPS can significantly shrink the time radioactive materials need to sit in storage. By accelerating the natural decay process, materials that would normally require 5-10 years of storage could potentially be safe for disposal in months or a couple of years instead.

The logistics get simpler too. Instead of managing long-term storage facilities with decades worth of material accumulating, companies could operate with much smaller footprints. Less material waiting around means less space needed, fewer security concerns, and lower insurance costs.

Think about it from a cost perspective. If you could reduce storage time by 75%, you'd be cutting your storage facility operating costs by a similar amount. For a company in the energy sector dealing with hundreds of wells, that's substantial savings. The technology pays for itself by eliminating years of storage fees, compliance costs, and tied-up capital.

The same principle applies to other radioactive waste streams. Medical facilities produce radioactive waste from imaging and treatment procedures. Research labs generate contaminated materials. All of these institutions face the same waiting game, watching the calendar until their waste is safe enough to dispose of. NSPS offers them an exit ramp from that waiting room.

The Bottom Line

For industries managing radioactive waste, NSPS offers a clear path to reduced costs. Less storage time means less money spent on facilities, security, monitoring, and compliance. For a sector where storage costs can run into millions of dollars annually, the technology represents a straightforward cost-benefit calculation.

The key advantage of NSPS is that it works with natural processes, not against them. There's no need for high temperatures, harsh chemicals, or energy-intensive treatment. Install the system, let nature do its work faster, and collect the benefits in terms of time saved and costs avoided.

The best way forward is to speed up the processes that are already happening in the ground.