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TerraPower, founded by Gates about 15 years ago, and power
company PacifiCorp, owned by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway,
said the exact site of the Natrium reactor demonstration plant
is expected to be announced by the end of the year.Small
advanced reactors, which run on different fuels than traditional
reactors, are regarded by some as a critical carbon-free
technology than can supplement intermittent power sources like
wind and solar as states strive to cut emissions that cause
climate change.
"This is our fastest and clearest course to becoming carbon
negative," Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon said. "Nuclear power is
clearly a part of my all-of-the-above strategy for energy" in
Wyoming, the country's top coal-producing state.
The project features a 345 megawatt sodium-cooled fast reactor
with molten salt-based energy storage that could boost the
system's power output to 500 MW during peak power demand.
TerraPower said last year that the plants would cost about $1
billion.
Late last year the U.S. Department of Energy awarded TerraPower
$80 million in initial funding to demonstrate Natrium
technology, and the department has committed additional funding
in coming years subject to congressional appropriations.
Chris Levesque, TerraPower's president and CEO, said the
demonstration plant would take about seven years to build.
"We need this kind of clean energy on the grid in the 2030s," he
told reporters.
Nuclear power experts have warned that advanced reactors could
have higher risks than conventional ones. Fuel for many advanced
reactors would have to be enriched at a much higher rate than
conventional fuel, meaning the fuel supply chain could be an
attractive target for militants looking to create a crude
nuclear weapon, a recent report
https://www.ucsusa.org/
resources/advanced-isnt-always-better said.
Levesque said that the plants would reduce proliferation risks
because they reduce overall nuclear waste.
In addition to bringing carbon-free power online, Wyoming
Senator John Barrasso said construction of the demonstration
project could lift up the state's once active uranium mining
industry.
Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate Energy Committee,
co-sponsored bipartisan legislation signed into law in 2019 that
directed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to create a path to
licensing advanced nuclear reactors such as the TerraPower demo.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici and Timothy Gardner; Writing by
Timothy Gardner; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Marguerita Choy
and Richard Pullin)
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