Advanced Nuclear Reactor Corporation owned by Bill Gates TerraPower LLC and PacifiCorp. Wyoming has chosen to launch its first natrium reactor project at the site of a retired coal plant, the state’s governor said Wednesday.
Kyiv. Ukraine. Ukraine Gate – June 04, 2021 – Entrepreneurs
TerraPower, founded by Gates about 15 years ago, and power company PacifiCorp, which is owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, said the exact location of the Natrium reactor demonstration plant is expected to be announced by the end of the year.
Advanced small reactors, which run on different fuels than conventional reactors, are seen by some as a carbon-neutral technology that could complement intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar as nations strive to cut emissions that cause climate change.
“This is our fastest and most obvious path to becoming carbon negative,” Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon said. “Nuclear power is clearly part of my overall energy strategy” in Wyoming, the nation’s largest coal-producing state.
The project features a 345 MW sodium-cooled fast reactor with molten salt-based energy storage that can boost the system’s power output to 500 MW during peak energy demand. TerraPower said last year the plants would cost about $1 billion.
Late last year, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded TerraPower $80 million in seed funding to demonstrate Natrium technology, and the department has committed additional funding in the coming years according to congressional appropriations.
TerraPower’s president and CEO, Chris Levesque, said the pilot plant will take about seven years.
“We need this kind of clean energy on the grid in the 2030s,” he told reporters.
Nuclear energy experts have warned that advanced reactors may have higher risks than conventional reactors. A recent report said that the fuels of many advanced reactors must be enriched at a much higher rate than conventional fuels, meaning the fuel supply chain could be an attractive target for militants looking to build a rudimentary nuclear weapon.
Levesque said the plants will reduce proliferation risks because they reduce total nuclear waste.
In addition to providing carbon-free energy online, Wyoming Senator John Barrasso said the creation of the pilot project could lift the uranium mining industry that has been active in the state.
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 pathway to license advanced nuclear reactors like the TerraPower bid.
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Source: Ukrgate
