Bill Gates said he is willing to invest billions of dollars in a next-generation nuclear power plant project in Wyoming to meet growing US energy needs.
TerraPower LLC, the startup founded by Gates, broke ground last week on building its first commercial reactor in Wyoming, where a coal-fired power plant is closing, the billionaire Microsoft Corp. co-founder said on CBS. Facing the nation. TerraPower has been researching simpler, cheaper reactors since 2008 and expects to complete construction of a new reactor in 2030.
“I have invested over a billion and will invest billions more,” said Gates, the sixth-richest person in the world according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The U.S. Department of Energy-backed TerraPower plant was originally expected to come online in 2028. But that would mean relying on fuel from Russia, which is “unacceptable right now,” Gates said on CNN. Fareed Zakaria GPS.
The reactor design uses liquid sodium rather than water as the coolant, along with molten salt, which can store heat to improve performance. TerraPower plans to buy reactor fuel from the United States and its allies, Gates said.
“Coal is being replaced by natural gas,” Gates told CNN. “And so we need to compete effectively with natural gas.”
Carbon-free nuclear power is increasingly seen as a key part of the fight against climate change, and more companies are promoting smaller reactors. Last year, 25 countries at the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai said they were aiming to triple nuclear capacity, according to BloombergNEF.