Microsoft founder Bill Gates has made up his mind to start his own nuclear power plant in a small Wyoming city. The Natrium nuclear power plant will be built in Kemmerer, as per The Guardian report. The facility will replace an old coal plant that is said to stop operation by 2025, and is said to create as many as 250 jobs in the 2,600-population city, once finished and operational.
The operations will be taken care of by TerraPower, an energy firm founded by Gates and owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. “Our innovative technology will help ensure the continued production of reliable electricity while also transitioning our energy system and creating new, good-paying jobs in Wyoming,” said TerraPower CEO Chris Levesque.
Will it be safer than traditional reactors?
Natrium will be a 345-megawatt sodium-cooled reactor that would serve around 250,000 homes in the area, as per The Guardian. This kind of reactor enables the plant to quickly shut down in case of an emergency. It is said to be safer than traditional reactors. “We think Natrium will be a gamechanger for the energy industry,” Gates said during the project’s launch.
However, not everyone seems impressed by the idea. Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at Union of Concerned Scientists, told The Guardian that using liquid sodium “has many problems.”
Not everyone seems convinced
“Honestly I don’t understand the motivation,” Lyman told the news outlet. “There are some people who are just strong advocates for it and they’ve sort of won the day here by convincing Bill Gates that this is a good technology to pursue.”
Besides, China is also planning to develop the first “clean” commercial nuclear reactor by using liquid thorium and molten salt. The first prototype reactor is expected to be ready by August this year, with the first tests slated to kick off in September. A full-scale commercial reactor is believed to be finished by 2030. The technology should not only reduce emissions but could spark some political controversy. Only time will tell how it would shape up.
