TerraPower Starts Construction of First US Next-Gen Nuclear Power Plant

TapTechNews June 12th, according to Bill Gates' personal blog GatesNotes, the nuclear energy enterprise TerraPower, which he founded and serves as the chairman, has recently started the construction of the first next-generation nuclear power plant in the United States in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

TerraPower's Kemmerer nuclear power plant will be based on its Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor technology. Bill Gates claims that this technology is safer than any existing nuclear power plant plan, while the construction time is shorter and the operating cost is lower.

The reactor construction application of TerraPower was accepted by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in May, which is the first commercial non-light water reactor in the United States to reach this step in more than forty years.

Because the reactor construction plan has not been approved yet, TerraPower's current construction work focuses on the non-nuclear island (Note by TapTechNews: that is, the EnergyIsland in the figure below) part of the nuclear power plant.

Next year, this enterprise will start the construction of the non-nuclear part of the nuclear island, and the goal is to enter the reactor construction stage in 2026.

The Kemmerer nuclear power plant is expected to go online in 2030. At that time, the output power of this nuclear power plant can reach 345 MW, and a molten salt energy storage system of 1 GWh level will be built in配套.

Bill Gates said:

I am proud of all the partners and people who have helped build the world's most advanced nuclear project in Kemmerer, Wyoming. I believe that TerraPower's next-generation nuclear energy will power the future of our country and the world.