Construction Starts On 'Revolutionary' Bill Gates Nuclear Project - Newsweek
Construction Starts On 'Revolutionary' Bill Gates Nuclear Project - Newsweek
Bill Gates's nuclear company has begun work on a multi-billion dollar project in Wyoming that he said would revolutionize the energy industry.
TerraPower, founded and chaired by Gates, began construction Monday on an advanced nuclear project in Kemmerer.
Scheduled to become operational in 2030, the sodium-cooled reactor will pick up the slack from the town's retiring coal mine, the Associated Press reported.
"The ground we broke in Kemmerer will soon be the bedrock of America's energy future. Today, we took the biggest step yet toward safe, abundant, zero-carbon energy," said Gates, who has frequently advocated for nuclear alternatives to fossil fuels.
In March, TerraPower applied for a construction permit for the plant's Natrium reactor with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which was accepted for review last month.
The review process will take "a couple of years", according to Gates Notes, the online blog of the Microsoft co-founder. The work started Monday will focus on constructing the site's non-nuclear elements.
Gates said the new site would "revolutionize" energy production and help the US to "meet our economic and climate goals" with "more abundant clean energy, not less."
Kemmerer, a small town in western Wyoming which is home to around 2,400 inhabitants, was chosen as the location for TerraPower's advanced reactor back in 2021.
The site of the new facility is adjacent to the Naughton power plant, operated by PacifiCorp, scheduled to stop burning coal in 2026 and natural gas a decade later. TerraPower said that the plant will " provide power to support PacifiCorp's Rocky Mountain Power customers in Wyoming and throughout the region."
Gates said that the company is committed to hiring workers from the retiring coal plant, and that completion of the project will require a 1,600-person labor force comprising local construction workers.
While he added that the local community have "embraced" the new project, concerns have been raised over whether the new nuclear power plant can fill the void of the fossil fuel-reliant energy industry in Wyoming, which remains the country's leading coal producer according to Statista.
The Natrium plant "is not a silver bullet to solve Wyoming's economic woes", the Wyoming Outdoor Council said in 2021, following the selection of Kemmerer as the location for TerraPower's project. "While nuclear plants could fill some gaps in the workforce left by closing coal-fired power plants, they would not replace the mineral royalties that provide the bulk of funding for state services, local governments, and schools."
TerraPower has been contacted by email for comment regarding how many employees from the retiring Naughton plant it intends to hire for the Natrium site.
The completed plant will feature a 345 megawatt reactor, developed in partnership with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, and a built-in energy storage system capable of boosting the facility's output to 500 megawatts.
The project has the backing of the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, which will supply half of the estimated $4 billion costs associated with bringing the plant to production, the Associated Press reported on Monday.
The plant will utilize liquid sodium as a coolant, a more effective and economical alternative to water given its higher boiling point, as well as a molten salt energy storage system, which the company hailed as "more resilient, flexible and cost-effective than current grid-scale battery technology."
"I'm proud of all the partners and people who helped get the most advanced nuclear project in the world built in Kemmerer, Wyoming," said Gates. "I believe that TerraPower's next-generation nuclear energy will power the future of our nation—and the world."
The site is expected to be operational in 2030, pushed back from an original launch date of 2028. TerraPower announced the delay in 2022, caused by its refusal to buy the high-assay low-enriched uranium needed for the Natrium reactor from Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia currently supplies around 44% of global uranium enrichment services and between 20% and 30% of the enriched uranium used in the U.S. and Europe, according to the U.S. Office for Nuclear Energy.
In May, TerraPower announced that that it will be partnering with Framatome North America to construct a high-assay low-enriched uranium metallization pilot plant in Richland, Washington, which the company said would "support the development of the domestic HALEU supply chain."
TerraPower has been contacted by email for comment regarding how it plans to source the necessary enriched uranium for the Natrium facility. The comment request was made outside of the company's working hours.
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