KEMMERER—Nearly three years after TerraPower announced it would build its inaugural Natrium nuclear plant in Wyoming, the company’s founder — Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates — was on hand to celebrate the first major construction milestone for the project.
Approximately 300 local and state officials, as well as business partners attended the groundbreaking ceremony.
“This reactor exists inside a virtual model, and it’s been working really well inside the computer,” Gates said light-heartedly, eliciting some laughter. “It’s a little bit harder to make it work out there. But that’s what we’re starting on today. This is a big step towards safe, abundant, zero-carbon energy.”
Technically, Gates and others marked the groundbreaking of a liquid sodium testing facility — a critical component of TerraPower’s Natrium nuclear power plant slated to begin operating here in 2030. The event marked what developers, which includes the U.S. Department of Energy, say is the “first advanced nuclear project in the Western Hemisphere to move from design to construction.”
Gates-backed TerraPower touts the Natrium design as part of the industry’s “next generation” strategy to deploy nuclear power throughout the nation and across the globe — a low-carbon alternative for stable electrical generation and a means to address planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions while meeting growing demand for electricity, according to the company.
Rather than the industry’s existing standard of massive nuclear power plants that consume a lot of water, Natrium is much smaller and will use liquid sodium to cool the reactor, which is designed to generate a consistent 345 megawatts of power — enough energy to power about 250,000 homes — with a capability of ramping up to 500 megawatts for short periods, according to the Bellevue, Washington-based TerraPower.
The $4 billion construction project is also considered an economic lifeline for southwest Wyoming, particularly the adjacent towns of Kemmerer and Diamondville, a region impacted by fossil fuels’ decline. The company selected the location in 2021 in part because it can tap into existing power-grid infrastructure and local labor force currently serving the nearby Naughton power plant, which is scheduled for permanent closure in 2036. Until the Natrium project came along, locals considered the pending Naughton closure — and potentially the Kemmerer coal mine that serves it — an insurmountable blow to jobs and the local economy.
“I believe this project will keep Kemmerer prosperous for decades to come,” Gates said. “That’s because we’re not just going to build the one plant. We’re going to build a lot of these things.”
Electrical demand is projected to increase across the globe — including to support data centers and artificial intelligence, Gates said. And nations are desperate for reliable carbon-free energy.
“We’re going to support electrification. We support keeping the world’s best data centers here in the country, and so we do need a lot more energy. And you’re the pioneers that are going to make that happen.”
Gov. Mark Gordon told the crowd he never doubted that TerraPower was sincere about making good on its efforts to launch the next generation of nuclear energy in Wyoming. But he warned that many companies come to Wyoming with big promises and not enough to back them up.
“If you’re going to do something about energy, you’re going to do it in Wyoming,” Gordon said, explaining why so many energy companies propose projects in the state. “We have the best solar, the best wind, the best water, and we are a source of nuclear material and nuclear fuel. That’s all very, very exciting. But Chris [Levesque, TerraPower president] you got to show me what you’re actually going to get accomplished.”
Construction milestone
Commencement of the liquid sodium testing facility build marks what company officials say will be continuous construction at the location until the Natrium plant goes into operation. The phased construction begins with the “non-nuclear” components of the plant while TerraPower continues the years-long process of obtaining a nuclear design license and construction permit from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the nuclear side.
The phased nature of construction will cycle in workers with different construction and engineering skills, peaking at about 1,600 workers in 2028, according to TerraPower.
Gillette-based Earth Work Solutions won a $10 million contract from Bechtel Corp., the lead construction contractor for Natrium, to build the liquid sodium testing facility. TerraPower hopes to obtain NRC approval to begin construction on the nuclear components by 2026.
The company filed a nuclear construction permit application with the federal agency in March. Levesque, the TerraPower president, said the company recently learned the NRC has officially accepted the application without requests for amendments.
“That’s huge,” Levesque told reporters, “because that’s one of the biggest schedule risks, and now that [construction permit review] has begun.”
Company officials have said they’re working with the NRC for an expedited review process.
Commercialization
One of the biggest roadblocks to deploying new nuclear power plants in recent decades has been financing. What sets TerraPower’s pilot Natrium plant here apart from past financial failures is the fact that it’s backed by Gates and the federal government.
TerraPower, which Gates founded in 2006, is backing half of the estimated $4 billion of the construction project with private financing — which includes other private investors — while the U.S. Department of Energy has committed another $2 billion in taxpayer money.
The western utility giant PacifiCorp also plays a critical role.
The utility, part of billionaire Warren Buffet’s multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, has signed a memorandum of understanding to take over the Natrium plant in Kemmerer and integrate it into its six-state service territory, which includes Wyoming. PacifiCorp, which operates as Rocky Mountain Power in Wyoming, Utah and Idaho, is also considering taking on five more Natrium reactors, co-locating them with coal-fired power plants that it plans to retire.
What it means to Kemmerer and Wyoming
“It’s a pretty big deal,” Kemmerer Mayor Bill Thek told WyoFile days before the event. “These towns [Kemmerer and Diamondville] were born on energy, which was the coal industry. Then we moved to drilling for oil and [natural] gas, and we’re surrounded by gas plants and compressor stations that pump this stuff all over the country.
“Now, one more time, we’re on the cusp of a new type of nuclear energy that really has us on the map.”
Though not every Naughton-supported job will be easily transferable to the Natrium plant, it will support an estimated 250 permanent jobs once operational, according to officials. The promise of a construction boom and new permanent jobs is one thing, but actually being prepared to support them for the long term is another.
Kemmerer and surrounding communities are still scrambling to shift gears from what, just a few years ago, looked to be a long economic decline to booming industrial activity. Housing has been a primary concern, as well as emergency preparedness and basic services — health care, schools and utilities — that have been in decline for the past decade.
A long-abandoned apartment complex is under renovation to provide 64 rental units, while numerous other rental projects and new permanent housing construction is underway, as well as plans for a major new truckstop outside of town.
While the fresh water supply system that serves both Kemmerer and Diamondville has plenty of capacity to meet significant growth, local officials are working with state and federal agencies to secure funds to patch up an aging sewer system, Thek said.
Lincoln County is also considering a ballot measure for an optional “6th penny” tax levied on retail sales and personal property, which could generate $24 million over a four-year period to help with road and other infrastructure upgrades throughout the county.
Officials are planning for several other major industrial projects in the region besides the Natrium plant. The trona and soda ash industry has plans for major expansions, others are partnering with the state and Department of Energy to establish several carbon dioxide collection and storage facilities. All told, the slate of industrial projects in southwest Wyoming may require more than 6,000 temporary construction workers over the next five years, according to estimates.
“There’s a million things going on here at the same time,” Thek said.
“According to the UCS report, however, sodium-cooled fast reactors such as Natrium would likely be less uranium-efficient and would not reduce the amount of waste that requires long-term isolation. They could also experience safety problems that are not an issue for light-water reactors. Sodium coolant, for instance, can burn when exposed to air or water, and the Natrium’s design could experience uncontrollable power increases that result in rapid core melting.” This is a quote from Scientific American July 23, 2021 article called “So-Called Next-Generation Power Plants Are Being Oversold” by Elliott Nagin. When I was young, some fifty and sixty years ago, we very actively opposed nuclear power development because of the simple fact that there is no solution to the disposal of radioactive waste. Since then, as we all know, there have been several catastrophic safety events in Japan, Russia and the U.S. There is still no solution to the problem of storing radioactive waste for hundreds of years. This coverage of the Kemmerer project should include mention of these downsides, with analysis from outside experts. Also project is hugely tax-supported so should be subjected to much more public comment, dontcha think?
Gates should retire and drop out of sight. Hasn’t he done enough damage frustrated enough users, and scrounged enough of a fortune with his operating system? His move to nukes is about what one might expect of a robber baron, though. Apparently their greed is insatiable.
Will never fire up in our lifetimes. But funny how already talking needing more tax money. Can’t Terrapower afford a measly little $24 million to pay for road upgrades.
Thanks for this info. Despite the 6000 constructions jobs this could create, the long-term prospects for employment in Kemmerer sound much less impressive. Plus, with Yucca Mountain in Nevada still out of operation (the proposed US nuclear waste depository), nuclear waste is being stored on site at 60+ nuclear power plants. Wyoming is not a waste land. Where are they planning to store the waste for 14,000 years, the time it takes to become safe. I’d prefer we head in the direction of renewables and finding a way to a sustainable economy. It’s not impossible.
Not all nukes are the same. Liquid sodium reactors have their own set of problems. The US Navy will not use them. Wyoming is the natural site for this experiment since there are so few folks per square mile. Thing is, the entire Yellowstone ecosystem is downwind and the Colorado river system is downstream. Good luck to us.
As I heard today it wouldn’t be as big of a success if it wasn’t for our (we the peoples hard stolen tax dollars paying for it). It’s an absolute joke to say it’s zero carbon up front, but what about all the carbon it takes to get the uranium from Russia, plus where to dispose of the sent material. But as with all subsidized electricity we the work class will continue to pay double
From what I’m hearing from a good source, is all the electricity produced would go to California, don’t know what to think of this, in my mind Wyoming could produce all its electricity in state with natural gas and sell the rest to neighboring states, Colorado says there going to be renewable by 2030! Let me know how that works out for ya, pretty sure you’re electric cars won’t run without fossil fuels to get them charging, my opinion
I would really love to click the heels of my ruby red slippers and believe in the Technicolor magic here but I’m pretty certain the Wizard chose to build his Yellowcake Road to Kemmerer simply because the dirt in Lincoln County is some of the dirt cheapest dirt in all of OZ (not to mention how ridiculously easy it will be to pump all those electrons down hill into the OC)…
6000 temp jobs and all the nuclear waste we care to wallow in for an eternity– What a sweetheart deal we’re getting here– No Heart. No Courage. ( AI Toto doesn’t even have a head in his portrait above for crying out loud). I’m sure the flying AI security monkey meet and greet will be equally terrifying– Might want to hop on over to the Golden Rule Store right now for a fresh change of dungarees before those things get off the ground… There’s no place like home… There’s no place like home…