TerraPower

History

2024

Commencing construction of TerraPower's first nuclear reactor

In mid-June 2024, Bill Gates' startup TerraPower began building the world's first sodium nuclear reactor. Once commissioned, the "Sodium" demonstration plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming will become a fully functioning commercial power plant.

Sodium would be much safer and produce far less waste than conventional reactors, Gates said. The project includes the erection of a 345 MW sodium heat transfer reactor with a molten salt-based energy storage system. This technology can, if necessary, increase the power of the system to 500 MW, which is equivalent to the energy required to power about 400,000 houses. The ability to store energy also allows the plant to easily integrate renewable energy sources into its system.

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TerraPower

A new reactor is being built next to a coal-fired power plant, which should soon go out of service. The Sodium site will employ 200 to 250 people and TerraPower plans to hire 110 former coal plant workers. The TerraPower nuclear power plant is expected to enter service in 2030. TerraPower began erecting non-reactor parts of the station while the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers an application for a nuclear reactor filed in May 2024.

The construction of the nuclear reactor is scheduled to begin in 2025 on the "energy island," where steam turbines and other equipment that generate electricity will be located. The construction of Sodium will take several years, and 1,600 jobs will be used at the peak of the work. TerraPower is known to have entered into a private-state partnership with the US Department of Energy and also entered into a contract with the energy company PacifiCorp.^[1]

Plan for the start of construction of the first nuclear power plant with liquid sodium cooling technology

TerraPower, a company founded by Bill Gates, said in March 2024 that it planned to start building the first new-generation nuclear power plant in the U.S. in June, entering a race with Russian and Chinese rivals to develop and export cheaper reactors.

Chris Levesque, chief executive of TerraPower, told the FT that the company will apply in March to allow U.S. regulators to build its reactor, which is cooled by liquid sodium rather than water.

2021: Selection of site for construction of the first NPP

On November 16, 2021, founded by Bill Gates with the aim of revolutionizing the design of nuclear reactors, TerraPower chose the city of Kemmerer in the United States as the preferred location for its first reactor. The creation of the station in the border coal town will last until 2028.

The construction of a nuclear power plant (NPP) will be a real major event for the city, because at its peak it will employ 2,000 people, TerraPower CEO Chris Levesque said during a video conference with reporters. The nuclear power plant will also provide new jobs in clean power in a region dominated by the coal and gas industries. As of mid-November 2021, the local power plant, coal mine and natural gas processing plant combined provide more than 400 jobs, a significant number for the region, which has only about 3 thousand people. As Levesque noted, for TerraPower, the choice of location was driven by geological and technical factors such as seismic and soil conditions, as well as local community support.

Bill Gates' nuclear startup TerraPower begins construction of first nuclear power plant

This is a very serious government grant. This project was necessary because the US government and the American nuclear industry are lagging behind. China and Russia continue to build new stations with advanced technologies, as we have, and are striving to export these stations to many other countries of the world, so the US government was concerned that the country was not moving forward in this area, said TerraPower CEO Chris Levesque.

The construction of the station will cost about $4 billion, with half of this money coming from TerraPower, and the other half from the US Department of Energy Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. After construction, the station will provide a base load of 345 megawatts, with the ability to expand capacity to 500 megawatts. After the completion of construction, the station will provide electricity to settlements until 2088.

The station will be the first to use an advanced nuclear design called Natrium, developed by TerraPower in conjunction with GE-Hitachi. Natrium plants use liquid sodium instead of water as a cooling agent. Sodium has a higher boiling point and can absorb more heat than water, meaning no high pressure is created inside the reactor, reducing the risk of it exploding. In addition, sodium plants do not require an external power source to operate cooling systems, which can become a vulnerability in the event of an emergency shutdown. Installations can store heat in molten salt tanks, conserving energy for later use like a battery, allowing for increased power to the station. These devices are smaller than conventional nuclear power plants, which should speed up and reduce the cost of their construction compared to conventional ones. TerraPower aims to reduce the cost of its stations to $1 billion, which is a quarter of the budget of the first station in Kemmerer.^[2]

2019: Bill Gates wanted to build a nuclear reactor in China through TerraPower

At the end of November 2019, Bill Gates said that the disruption of his project to build an experimental nuclear reactor in China slowed down the development of this technology for five years. An attempt to build a prototype in China failed due to restrictions on cooperation and foreign investment in the nuclear sphere, which were introduced by the United States in October 2018.

Gates is one of the key investors in TerraPower, which is building a "traveling wave reactor" (TWR) operating without enriched uranium. The developers wanted to make a reactor that was "economical, safe and produced very little waste," Gates said. Such reactors can operate for 100 years.

Bill Gates said that the disruption of his project to build an experimental nuclear reactor in China slowed down the development of this technology for five years

In 2017, TerraPower agreed with China to build an experimental nuclear reactor south of Beijing. However, in October 2018, the US Department of Energy imposed restrictions on nuclear cooperation with China. Now the cross could be put on any deal relating to nuclear technology, since all large enough projects potentially had a military purpose. Gates noted that the disruption of the project threw the entire industry back.

Industry leaders, economists and researchers echo Gates and warn that trade tensions between China and the United States have begun to affect business and the economy and are already noticeably slowing down the pace of technological progress and scientific research. If the two superpowers do not reach a consensus soon, "we risk returning to the dark ages," said YahooJerry Yang, co-founder. According to Young, open systems will inevitably be more effective than closed systems. He also warned American companies that they would have to make compromises when doing business in China.^[3]

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