Deep Isolation Nuclear is now a publicly traded company. On July 13, 2026, the Berkeley, California-based firm announced that its application to list on the OTCQB Venture Market had been approved, with shares immediately available for trading under the ticker symbol DBHL. The milestone caps a journey that began in July 2025, when the company completed a reverse merger alongside a $33 million oversubscribed private placement.
The technology at the heart of the venture stands apart from the conventional model of large mined geological repositories. Deep Isolation applies directional drilling — the same technique refined by the oil and gas industry — to place corrosion-resistant canisters containing nuclear material into boreholes drilled more than one kilometer below the surface. The approach allows for permanent disposal of waste in suitable rock formations at a fraction of the cost of traditional repositories. The company holds more than 99 patents and a technology portfolio that includes the Universal Canister System, designed to accommodate various types of spent fuel from both legacy and next-generation reactors.
The demonstration program is already underway. On January 28, 2026, a groundbreaking ceremony was held at the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center near Cameron, Texas — located within Halliburton’s drilling technology campus. The multi-year program, carried out in partnership with Halliburton, Amentum, NAC International, and Occlusion Nuclear Solutions, does not involve radioactive material at this stage. The stated goal is to gather operational data and build confidence among regulators and stakeholders in deep borehole technology, paving the way for commercialization. In March 2026, a study conducted jointly with Oklo — funded through the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E ONWARDS program — confirmed that Deep Isolation’s technology is also compatible with the high-level waste generated by fuel recycling in advanced reactors.
Market conditions are favorable. The growing global demand for nuclear energy as part of the clean energy transition has made permanent waste disposal an increasingly urgent issue. The United States still has no permanent repository: nuclear waste is stored in dry casks at reactor sites, both operational and decommissioned. Deep Isolation aims to fill that gap on an international scale, offering a modular solution adaptable to local geology and the size of each country’s waste inventory. In May 2025, the company had already signed a memorandum of understanding with Deep Fission, a startup developing underground small modular reactors, to manage the spent fuel generated by its future plants. The ARPA-E SCALEUP Ready program has also selected the Universal Canister System to support its path to commercial markets.
With its OTCQB listing, Deep Isolation opens its doors to public investors at a time when the global nuclear sector is gaining credibility and attracting growing private capital. Should the Texas demonstration program deliver the expected results — and should the U.S. regulatory framework evolve to authorize deep boreholes as repositories for high-level waste — the company could be well positioned to offer governments a concrete answer to one of civil nuclear energy’s longest-standing unresolved challenges.
