Key Points
- DeepFission raised $150 million including a $40 million IPO to build the first commercial underground nuclear reactor a mile deep in granite near Parsons, Kansas, targeting operation by 2027 or 2028.
- Parsons residents split over the project: local officials see job creation and economic revival, while skeptics fear being guinea pigs for unproven technology they cannot inspect or easily monitor.
- The company chose Parsons for practical reasons—suitable geology and available land in an industrial park—highlighting how emerging nuclear ventures must site experiments near existing infrastructure rather than remote terrain.
Summary
DeepFission's Underground Nuclear Reactor Divides Rural Kansas
DeepFission, a California startup founded by UC Berkeley physicist Liz Mueller and her father Richard Mueller, is developing a gravity-based underground nuclear reactor designed to operate a mile deep in granite. The company raised $150 million over the past year, including $40 million through an IPO last month, to fund construction in Parsons, Kansas—a farming town of 9,600 people sitting roughly midway between Kansas City and Tulsa.
No one has commercially operated a nuclear reactor at that depth before. The timeline is aggressive by nuclear standards: DeepFission drilled its first test hole this spring on 100 acres at a mostly abandoned industrial park just outside town. The plan is to send a canister loaded with nuclear fuel into a third hole to heat water underground and generate electricity on the surface in 2027 or 2028.
Town divided on risk and opportunity
Parsons residents split sharply on the project. Elected officials and some locals see economic upside—job creation and potential attraction of data centers and manufacturers to a region whose economy has stalled. Others are skeptical. Gerald Johnson, an IT professional who planned to retire there, said he invested $125,000 in his house only to watch an experimental nuclear reactor arrive. "I can't think of a worse idea," he said.
The tension sits between perceived safety and psychological comfort. Underground placement theoretically makes the facility safer—a mile of granite provides containment—but residents struggle with the distance and inaccessibility. One local acknowledged the logic: "It's great that it's here, but it's kind of bad that we're the guinea pigs." The buried-reactor framing trades visible, manageable risk (a facility you can see and monitor) for invisible, remote risk (something a mile down that's harder to inspect or address if something fails).
DeepFission's site choice reflects practical constraints. The company needs road access for equipment delivery and existing infrastructure. Parsons offered both proximity to suitable geology and land availability—a 100-acre parcel in an overgrown industrial park. Finding truly uninhabited terrain across hundreds of miles in rural America is difficult; towns and infrastructure are scattered throughout the region.
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