0 m · surfaceThe challenge
The waste question is no longer hypothetical. It is scheduled.
Every credible review of Australia's nuclear future arrives at the same constraints: where the waste goes, how the safety case is made, and whether communities consent. These are the problems we work on.
A present-day backlog
Radioactive waste from medicine, research and industry is held at interim stores across the country while national disposal capacity remains unresolved. The holding pattern has a clock on it.
A multi-decade obligation
Under AUKUS, Australia is solely responsible for managing the radioactive waste of its nuclear-powered submarines — including spent fuel — with no export option. The capability must be built here.
A social-licence test
Siting has failed in Australia not on engineering but on consent. Durable outcomes require genuine engagement with communities and First Nations — designed in from the start, not appended at the end.
500 m · isolation zoneWhat we do
Four practices. One spine: make nuclear stewardship credible.
Our work centres on the science of safe disposal, the assurance behind it, the consent of the communities who host it, and the readiness of the nations who govern it.
Waste stewardship & disposal
Waste characterisation and inventory strategy; evaluation of near-surface, deep geological and deep borehole disposal options; independent technical and peer review.
Environmental assurance & safety cases
Long-term safety case development aligned with IAEA and ARPANSA frameworks; radionuclide behaviour and barrier-system performance; environmental risk and monitoring strategy.
Social licence & stakeholder engagement
Design and delivery of community, First Nations, government and industry engagement for nuclear and waste projects — consultation practice proven in the hardest social-licence arenas in the country.
Nuclear readiness & capacity building
Governance and regulatory readiness for nations entering nuclear programs; workforce development; back-end and decommissioning planning; regional stewardship strategy. Advisory only — we do not develop reactor projects.
Advanced disposal systems & repository concepts
Alongside our advisory practices, INS maintains an applied research interest in advanced disposal systems and repository concepts — deep borehole disposal, modular repositories and regional stewardship models among them. We work with national and international research partners to advance the science that future disposal decisions will rest on.
1,500 m · crystalline basementRegional stewardship
The region's nuclear decade is coming. Readiness comes first.
Ageing research reactors across Southeast Asia will require decommissioning and spent-fuel solutions; nations preparing for small modular reactors need governance frameworks, regulatory capability and back-end answers before the front end is credible. Australia's geological stability, non-proliferation standing and regulatory maturity position it to lead responsibly. We advise governments, agencies and development partners on building that readiness — and on earning the consent that makes any of it durable.
3,000 m · disposal zoneWho we are
Senior practitioners, not a panel of generalists.
[Co-founder — to be announced]
Co-founder — Policy, engagement & delivery
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Paul Bertsch
Co-founder — Science & environmental assurance
Paul is an internationally recognised environmental scientist, science leader and policy advisor with more than 35 years across the environmental, nuclear, resource and sustainability sectors in Australia, the United States and internationally — including senior leadership at CSIRO and service as Queensland Chief Scientist.
His nuclear record spans research and advisory engagements across major U.S. Department of Energy nuclear materials production, processing and waste management facilities; a founding role in the International Radioecology Laboratory at Slavutych, Ukraine, after the Chernobyl accident; and contributions to long-term waste management programs including WIPP and Yucca Mountain.
4,000 m · sealed intervalHow we work
The honest broker in a contested field.
Australian-owned and technology-agnostic. We are not captured by any prime, vendor or administration — our advice has no product attached.
Every recommendation stands on published science and defensible safety-case logic, benchmarked against IAEA guidance.
We treat community and First Nations consent as a design input, not a communications problem. Projects that skip this step fail.