Microsoft (MS) founder Bill Gates announced on the 16th that he would invest trillions of won in the next-generation nuclear power plant construction project.
According to Bloomberg, Gates appeared on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ that day and introduced the fact that TerraPower, a company he founded, began construction of the first next-generation small modular reactor (SMR) in the United States in Wyoming last week. “I’ve put in a billion dollars, and I’m going to put in billions more,” he said. Terra Power held a groundbreaking ceremony for the next-generation SMR in Kemmerer, Wyoming on the 10th with Gates in attendance.
Gates, the world’s sixth richest person according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, co-founded Terrapower in 2008 with the goal of producing safe, abundant clean energy that does not use carbon fuels in the private sector. TerraPower’s first next-generation SMR, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, is scheduled for completion and operation in 2030 and plans to replace existing thermal power plants to supply electricity to residents. Gates told CNN’s global affairs program GPS that realizing the original goal of operating in 2028 would mean relying on fuel imported from Russia, which he described as “unacceptable at this time.”
At the same time, he added that fuel for the reactor operation is planned to be airlifted from the United States and its allies. TerraPower’s nuclear reactor is characterized by using liquid sodium rather than water as a coolant. Gates also emphasized in this program, “Coal is losing out in competition with natural gas,” and “What we need to do is compete effectively with natural gas.”
Meanwhile, TerraPower’s Wyoming project is expected to cost up to $4 billion, half of which will be supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.