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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
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Entropy on Monday November 22 2021, @07:23PM (1 child)
If it's similar to some of the russian reactors one issue is the liquid sodium becomes radioactive... So the heat carrier in the reactor system becomes a massive radioactive sludgefest in any kind of malfunction. The water used in the reactors doesn't. Naturally it had advantages as well such as superior heat conduction to the turbines and such.
Either way--I'm glad to see further adoption of nuclear power. It's a great technology that we need to perfect...even if it is coming from gates. Hopefully Windos doesn't control the reactor. (and hopefully common core educated don't design it.)
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday November 23 2021, @04:10PM
Ah, was you mentioned that. So... in the event of a Fail, how do they dispose of the now-radioactive sodium sludge, and keep it from dissolving into the ground water??
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.