Construction will continue as planned at TerraPower’s Natrium “advanced” nuclear reactor power plant near Kemmerer, the company says, even though its lead engineering and construction contractor announced it will exit the project.
Bechtel, a global engineering giant, first mentioned the split in a Worker Adjustment and Retaining Notification letter sent to Virginia officials earlier this month indicating it will terminate its involvement with the project and that the split would result in eliminating 200 positions at its nuclear engineering headquarters in Reston, Virginia, beginning sometime in November.
“TerraPower and Bechtel were unable to reach an agreement on the next phase of the project and have decided to move forward separately,” Bechtel stated in the Sept. 15 letter. The letter did not offer additional details about the cause of the split.
Bechtel will complete work on a “sodium test-and-fill facility,” and bidding is underway to find a replacement firm, TerraPower told WyoFile in a statement Monday.
“Construction in Kemmerer will maintain its current schedule with the exemplary subcontractor teams and [engineering, procurement and construction] support services from commercial-grade firms that have been working on site. TerraPower is managing this transition to protect the overall construction schedule for [Kemmerer Unit 1] and will rebid the EPC contract.”
TerraPower, backed by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, selected Kemmerer in 2021 for its pilot Natrium nuclear power plant, a liquid-sodium cooled “advanced” nuclear reactor. The term advanced, these days, is typically applied to nuclear reactor designs that are smaller than nuclear plants built decades ago, and that do not rely on water for cooling. Gates has billed the project as critical for meeting the global challenges of climate change and growing demand for electricity.
Bechtel was tapped in 2020 to lead design and construction for the bulk of the nuclear energy campus, which includes nonnuclear portions — a workforce training center and liquid-sodium testing facility — and the “nuclear island” that includes the actual nuclear power plant and ancillary components that fall under the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s authorities. Bechtel was expected to maintain its lead role through completion of the power plant, expected to commence operations by 2031, according to TerraPower statements that still appeared on its website Monday.
Bechtel, however, wasn’t expressly under contract to continue to the next “nuclear island” phases of the project, according to Lincoln County Board of Commissioners Chairman Kent Connelly, who said TerraPower has kept commissioners apprised of progress and changes.
TerraPower has been “very open about it,” Connelly told WyoFile. “There’ll be a new contractor coming in. So this is not about somebody being pulled off the site. They’re just changing contractors.”
The WARN notice that was sent to Virginia officials was a “legal requirement,” Bechtel told WyoFile in a statement. “Our people will move to other nuclear projects underway across the company, where demand for these skills continues to grow.”
In addition to the nonnuclear facilities at the site, Bechtel was instrumental in “major procurements” for materials, it said, as well as “beginning foundational work for Kemmerer Unit 1.”
“This work was performed under an earlier phase of the contract, prior to full [engineering, procurement and construction] scope,” Bechtel added. “As we considered the next phase of the project, Bechtel and TerraPower decided to move forward separately.”
First-of-its-kind nuclear plant
The Natrium plant at Kemmerer is designed to generate 345 megawatts of electricity with an energy storage component to ramp up to 500 megawatts to meet demand peaks, according to the Bellevue, Washington-based company. One megawatt is enough electricity to power about 750 homes.
The $4 billion project is backed by $2 billion from the Department of Energy — a commitment made under the first Trump administration.
Construction on nonnuclear portions of the project began in 2024 and 2025. The NRC issued a construction permit for the nuclear portions of the campus in March, making it the first commercial reactor approved in nearly a decade in the U.S.
The next major permitting milestone will be an operating license from the NRC, which TerraPower says it hopes to secure in 2028. The plant is expected to be fully operational by 2031, according to the company.
TerraPower has indicated that it plans on building similar Natrium-design nuclear power plants throughout the U.S. and in other countries.
