Bloomberg— Bill Gates has declared that it is willing to invest billions of dollars in a next-generation nuclear plant project in Wyoming to meet the growing energy needs of the United States.
TerraPower LLC, a company founded by Gates, He broke ground on his first commercial reactor last week in Wyoming, where a coal plant is being shut down, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft Corp. said on CBS’ Face the Nation. TerraPower has been exploring simpler, cheaper reactors since 2008 and hopes to complete the new reactor in 2030.
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“I have put in more than a billion, and I will put in billions more,” said Gates, the sixth richest person in the world according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The TerraPower plant, which is backed by the U.S. Department of Energy, was initially planned for 2028. But that would have meant relying on fuel from Russia, which is “unacceptable now,” Gates said on the show. GPS by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
The reactor design uses liquid sodium as a coolant instead of water and includes molten salts that can store heat to increase its output. According to Gates, TerraPower plans to source fuel from the United States and its allies.
“Coal is being surpassed by natural gas,” Gates told CNN. “So what we have to do is compete effectively with natural gas.”
Carbon-free nuclear energy is increasingly seen as a key player in the fight against climate change, with more companies promoting smaller reactors. Last year, at the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai, 25 countries declared their ambition to triple nuclear capacity, according to BloombergNEF.
