---
title: "Monitoring for decades, then far longer"
url: https://mru.space/use-cases/nuclear-waste/
description: "Repository monitoring must run for decades, then far longer. Mru Field is software designed for that gap, tested in simulation and published openly."
---

[Mru](https://mru.space/) / [Mru Field](https://mru.space/field/) / [Use cases](https://mru.space/use-cases/) / Nuclear-waste repositories

Energy · Long-term Exploring

# Nuclear-waste repositories

Monitoring that must run for decades, then far longer.

![Mining vehicle in a salt drift deep underground at WIPP](https://mru.space/_astro/pl11-wipp-drift.C1CziYx__1yJpnT.jpg)

Mining vehicle in a salt drift deep underground at WIPP U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission · Public domain

“Capability is a depleting resource to be spent, not a fixed budget to be defended.”

Whitepaper, §5

Deep geological repositories are sealed for thousands of years. The monitoring before closure, and the markers after it, face the longest maintenance gap anyone has planned for.

Mru Field runs on the processors already in the equipment. When one fails and nobody can come, it continues on the ones left and delivers only results it can check. Status: decision core at TRL 3; first field pilot planned for 2027.

01

## Stored data decays

Flash wears out and bits flip. Logs and settings drift unless something checks them.

02

## Power runs down

Batteries fade and panels foul. The system has to do less, on purpose, and keep the important part going.

03

## No one to ask

When two computers disagree, there is no operator to say which one is right.

## Three computers. Then two. Then one, still working.

Most redundant systems stop when they lose their majority. Mru Field steps down instead, and says which mode it is in.

3 alive · vote

A B C

Three computers vote. One bad result is outvoted.

2 alive · compare

A B C

Two compare. A known-answer test finds the faulty one.

1 alive · self-check

A B C

The last one checks its own work and keeps the watch, at half speed.

Power

Site power, then none

Link

Wired, from depth

Visits

Restricted

Service life

Centuries and more

## Questions

Does Mru Field need new hardware?

No. It is software for the processors you already deploy. It runs beside your control code and decides which computer to trust as parts fail.

Does Mru work for centuries today?

No one can claim that yet. Our software is built for it and tested in simulation, and we publish all of it.

How do we start?

Use the form below. We first model your hardware and show what each redundancy design returns over its whole life. Then we plan a pilot on your own equipment.

## Related settings

[All use cases](https://mru.space/use-cases/)

[

Energy · Nuclear

### Nuclear facility monitoring

](https://mru.space/use-cases/nuclear-monitoring/)[

Memory · Preservation

### Long-term archives

](https://mru.space/use-cases/long-term-archives/)[

Research · Polar

### Polar stations and sensor networks

](https://mru.space/use-cases/polar-stations/)