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posted by martyb on Monday November 22 2021, @08:08AM   Printer-friendly

Bill Gates' nuclear power company selects a site for its first reactor

On Tuesday, TerraPower, the US-based nuclear power company backed by Bill Gates, announced it has chosen a site for what would be its first reactor. Kemmerer, Wyoming, population roughly 2,500, has been the site of the coal-fired Naughton Power Plant, which is being closed. The TerraPower project will see it replaced by a 345 megawatt reactor that would pioneer a number of technologies that haven't been commercially deployed before.

These include a reactor design that needs minimal refueling, cooling by liquid sodium, and a molten-salt heat-storage system that will provide the plant with the flexibility needed to better integrate with renewable energy.

While TerraPower is the name clearly attached to the project, plenty of other parties are involved, as well. The company is perhaps best known for being backed by Bill Gates, now chairman of the company board, who has promoted nuclear power as a partial solution for the climate crisis. The company has been selected by the US Department of Energy to build a demonstration reactor, a designation that guarantees at least $180 million toward construction and could see it receive billions of dollars over the next several years.

Also at Ars Technica.

Previously: Bill Gates & Warren Buffet to Build Nation's First Natrium Reactor in Wyoming


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday November 22 2021, @07:19PM

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Monday November 22 2021, @07:19PM (#1198637)

    Thorium Fluoride gets along with water pretty well, the problem it has that is holding it back is that in a liquid state they are very corrosive. Because of this it's easier to build a container for molten Sodium that will last 50 years than it is to make one for molten Fluoride salts with the same lifespan.

    There are alloys that can handle the molten fluoride salts but they are difficult to form into the shapes needed and work with in general so it's been a stalling point for the molten Fluoride salts concept. The people who worked on the original prototype LFTRs back at Oakridge National Laboratories were confident that it could be resolved given time.

    I know it's not going to happen but a "Manhattan Project" or "Man on the Moon" level push to develop MSRs and other safer nuclear reactors would probably get a really good and safe design done within a decade. I mean they went from first self sustaining chain reaction in hand built reactor pile on December in 1942 to an implosion* type nuclear device using Plutonium in just 2 and a half years.

    * imagine uniformly crushing a grapefruit to the size of a baseball using explosives. Easy concept, very hard in practice.when starting from scratch

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