Plans to construct a Natrium reactor demonstration project at a retiring coal plant in the US state of Wyoming were announced yesterday by TerraPower, PacifiCorp and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon. The companies are evaluating several potential locations in the state for the plant, which will feature a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor combined with a molten salt energy storage system that can boost the system's output to 500 MWe for more than five-and-a-half hours when needed. They expect to announce the selected site by the end of 2021.
Bill Gates’ TerraPower will build its first next-gen nuclear reactor in Wyoming
June 3, 2021 at 10:35 am
TerraPower’s lab tests the equipment and processes for next-generation nuclear reactors. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
TerraPower, PacifiCorp and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon announced plans on Wednesday to build a next-generation nuclear power plant on the site of one of the state’s retiring coal plants. The demonstration project will build a fully functioning power plant with the intention of validating TerraPower’s Natrium technology.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped launch Bellevue, Wash.-based TerraPower in 2006. The power company PacificCorp is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Gates and Buffett are long-time friends and Buffett has given billions of dollars to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.