The First Advanced Nuclear Reactor in U.S. History Just Got Approved—and Bill Gates Is Behind It

Bill Gates’ nuclear energy startup TerraPower has just cleared a regulatory hurdle that the U.S. nuclear industry has been waiting years to see.

On March 4, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted TerraPower the first federal construction permit ever issued for a commercial-scale advanced nuclear reactor, allowing the company to move forward with building its next-generation Natrium power plant in Wyoming, according to a press release.

The approval marks a major milestone not only for TerraPower but also for a U.S. nuclear industry that has struggled for decades to build new reactors. If completed on schedule, the project will become the first utility-scale advanced nuclear power plant in the United States, signaling renewed momentum for a technology many energy experts believe could help power an increasingly electricity-hungry economy.

“Today is a historic day for the United States’ nuclear industry,” TerraPower president and CEO Chris Levesque said in a statement. “We have spent thousands of manpower hours working to achieve this momentous accomplishment.”

The permit also represents the first approval for a commercial reactor construction project in the U.S. in nearly a decade, underscoring how difficult and time-consuming nuclear development has historically been.

TerraPower, which was founded by Bill Gates in 2006, is part of a new generation of companies attempting to reinvent nuclear energy with smaller, more efficient reactor designs. Those reactors could play a crucial role in supplying power to electrical grids that are increasingly strained by the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers and other energy-intensive computing infrastructure.

Gates has long argued that next-generation nuclear reactors could address two major global challenges simultaneously: climate change and rising electricity demand.