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from the safe-like-ms-windows-and-real-estate-doing-fission-together dept.
Wyoming has selected billionaire Bill Gates's company TerraPower LLC and Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway's owned power company PacifiCorp to build the nation's first Natrium reactor. As reported by Reuters:
TerraPower, founded by Gates about 15 years ago, and power company PacifiCorp, owned by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), 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.
[...] 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.
Also seen over at ZeroHedge.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday June 05 2021, @09:43AM (1 child)
Yes, we didn't just read the official report - we were part of the pipeline in its production.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rich on Sunday June 06 2021, @11:14AM
That's why I put the "safe" in quotes. "They" keep telling us that this EPR tech is the most safe on the planet, but after seeing the arte documentary, I had some suspicions. Actually I'm more worried about the permanent waste storage facility nearby, where apparently water was already leaking in before it was commissioned, while it should be safe for a few thousand years.
For the two other replies, Dounreay was (and still is) a big mess and its demonstration result mostly was that the UK is unable to sustainably operate breeders. (Kalkar was laid out to only 300MWe by the way, too). Monju can neither be called a success story. Only the Russians run them more or less sustainably. Probably not at cost, I assume they keep the tech mostly to hedge against fuel shortage and for weapons production once all the RBMK are down.
An ordinary NPP is mostly a big water kettle with some magic rods put in that heat it up, and that is not really competitive even without factoring in permanent waste storage. Managing a big molten metal kettle with a metal that turns radioactive, burns like hell, blows up when it touches water (but has to exchange its heat to water), and may never ever cool down is somewhat more difficult, which will reflect in the price. On the SpaceX comparison, they have Elon, who with his multi-Bond-supervillain powers, built up the premier payment service just to cash out starting capital for his real plans. All the other private space contenders are hardly past Germany '44. Unless the people involved have already shown their ability to do the impossible and bring their own money, the bet is firmly on "no go".