NAHPM

The Nuclear Assisted Hydrocarbon Production Method

        The problems of spent nuclear fuel (SNF); heat, ionizing radiation and radiolysis, which breaks down water into ions corrosive to fuel bundles and their containers are all facilitators of unconventional oil production.

        Hydrogen released by the process of radiolysis and the heat generated by SNF within an oil sands formation overturn the equilibrium of the system and contribute both to the in situ cracking and mobilization of the resource, while the high-energy flux of SNF ionizes and fractures (upgrades) a portion of the long chain bitumen in the ground.

        These resources can be exploited in a similar fashion to the Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) method with SNF substituting for the steam chamber. The sedimentary rock in which bitumen is found is ideal for radionuclide containment as demonstrated by the fact oil and gas, often under significant pressure, are found there.

        Bitumen itself has unprecedented capacity to sequester radionuclides, as was noted by a recent international study, and the 80 percent of Alberta’s oil sands that lie too deep to be mined are covered by a capping shale formation that would further sequester the radionuclides.

        Instead of consuming valuable and CO2 generating resources to produce these reserves the waste heat of spent nuclear fuel can and should be utilized.

        Using SNF in this fashion is technically indistinguishable from any other form of geothermal energy which derives its power from nuclear fission. The SNF inventory produces the annual BTU equivalent of close to 200 operational reactors and the owners are prepared to pay billions to rid themselves of this energy which provides enough heat to produce North America’s annual oil requirement.

        Producing such bounty – safely- should be sufficient inducement to overcome the NIMBY problem associated with SNF? But if not SNF can be recovered after it has depleted the oil sands to be burned a second time, as is, without the need of expensive, hazardous and dangerous from a proliferation standpoint reprocessing, in a pressurized heavy water reactor like the CANDU.

        The Nuclear Assisted Hydrocarbon Production Method (NAHPM) addresses the drawbacks to both unconventional oil and nuclear power and thus is a win/win for an energy starved world.

The Method

            NAHPM, Canadian patent application 2,659,302, is a method for the temporary or permanent storage of nuclear waste materials comprising the placing of waste materials into one or more repositories or boreholes constructed into an unconventional oil formation. The thermal flux of the waste materials fracture the formation, alters the chemical and/or physical properties of hydrocarbon material within the subterranean formation to allow removal of the altered material. A mixture of hydrocarbons, hydrogen, and/or other formation fluids are produced from the formation. The radioactivity of high-level radioactive waste affords proliferation resistance to plutonium placed in the periphery of the repository or the deepest portion of a borehole.

Executive Summary

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