Bill Gates-backed nuclear company TerraPower building new reactor - Quartz
Bill Gates-backed nuclear company TerraPower building new reactor
Bill Gates has a new technology he’s excited about. The New York Times reports that the Microsoft co-founder is very excited about TerraPower, a nuclear power company working on a new type of reactor that’s smaller and could be more easily assembled than traditional nuclear power generators.
“If you care about climate, there are many, many locations around the world where nuclear has got to work,” Gates told the newspaper. “I’m not involved in TerraPower to make more money. I’m involved in TerraPower because we need to build a lot of these reactors.”
The Times story focused on a reactor that TerraPower, which Gates co-founded in 2006 and has invested $1 billion of his own money into, is building in Wyoming. It just broke ground on the reactor and it isn’t expected to be running until at least 2030. Plus, it has a number of regulatory hurdles to overcome before it can be turned on.
The Washington Post reports that Gates has been actively pitching TerraPower’s technology to everyone who will listen, including politicians in Washington, D.C. The Biden administration recently released new guidance from the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service that would expand the number of clean-energy technologies eligible for certain tax credits to include nuclear power.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: nuclear
Nuclear energy provides almost 20 percent of the U.S. electricity supply. Advocates have called for an expanded role for nuclear as an emissions-free fuel source. But the economics of building new reactors are daunting. In addition, lingering safety concerns are an institutionalized part of the calculation of nuclear regulation, and highly radioactive nuclear waste remains a can that public officials have been inclined to kick down the road. The Energy Information Administration projects a sharp decline in nuclear power generation over the next decade, as new nuclear plants — two are planned — are more than offset by anticipated retirements of several operating reactors.