The Bill Gates nuclear power plant is planned in Wyoming

At the political level, nuclear energy will no longer be an issue in Germany after the energy transition. The last power plants in Germany will go offline at the end of 2022. In the UK or the US, things are different in some other countries as well. There, new types of firing systems contribute to low-emission energy generation and support energy sources such as wind and sun. US President Joe Biden is hoping for environmentally friendly electricity from so-called Small Module Reactors (SMRs). Such relatively small reactors must be built quickly and inexpensively, and research is being carried out on a number of projects around the world.

US startup Terrapower at Microsoft Founder Company Bill Gates One of the main investors in such SMR. As is now known, the company is building a furnace in the US state of Wyoming Built – it is to be shut down at the site of the coal-fired power plant. The exact location will not be announced until the end of the year.

The plan is for the molten salt reactor, which can be cooled with sodium and generate 345 MW of power, but can operate at speeds of up to 500 MW in the upper range. For the project in Wyoming Terrapower, the utility plans to work with Pacific Corp, part of Warren Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway. Terrapower boss Chris Levsky says it will take seven years to build the demonstration plant. Last year his company put the cost of such a project at around a billion dollars.

“This is our fastest and clearest way to go carbon negative,” said Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon. Nuclear power is part of the overall energy strategy in Wyoming, which has the highest coal production in the country. In addition to climate-friendly energy, he expects other effects. It could renew a uranium mine in Wyoming.

Terrapower was founded 15 years ago and is based in Washington state. The company’s mission is to create a rotating shaft and smelting salt furnace, both of which operate on a concept similar to the well-known Fast Grower, some of which are currently in operation. Since the neutrons produced during the fission reaction are not slowed down, these newly built energy and heating reactors can be operated with fuel rods or even atom bombs that have been used up by uranium. In theory, they could help reduce the mountain of access.

Pressurized water stoves in the swimming pool

Mini-ovens are not yet fully developed, and work is being done to upgrade the cooling circuit for devices that can, among other things, reach temperatures of up to 1000 degrees. Read here). Last year, the Gates-funded company received $ 80 million in funding from the US Department of Energy to demonstrate sodium technology.

In addition to TerraPower, other companies also work with SMRs, which, according to the definition of the International Atomic Energy Agency, deliver a maximum output of 300 MW, while conventional large-scale systems achieve values ​​of more than 1000 MW. Russian nuclear power plant »Academic LomonosoSM is one of the first SMRs. The prototype supplies accessible areas with electricity and heat.

In the USA, Nuskel is planning to build several small pressurized water reactors with an output of around 60 MW each to cool the water bed. This should also increase the safety of the ovens, because the water must still be sufficient even if the emergency systems of the individual ovens fail. Rolls Royce is planning larger plants. With more than 400 MW, they can already supply large cities and, in some cases, can be built quickly and flexibly using a modular design. In addition to their image and safety concerns, the biggest problems with conventional systems also include investment costs in the billions and long construction times in some places.

Are currently available worldwide. Some conventional nuclear power plants are under construction. Looking for cheap and CO2 proponents of the technology claim that free electricity would not work without nuclear power. Here are some experts pointing out the potential of SMRs. As promised by companies like Terrapower, such systems will at some point be more open to whether they are safer, cheaper and available as climate-friendly energy.

Some experts consider the cost argument to be too weak, as it has already been shown that the development of new technologies costs more money than planned. There are also reasonable doubts about safety. Since individual systems generate less power, many such SMRs are required – which increases the risk of possible complications.

Not even a barn question was answered. Because even with some models of small systems, garbage will arise. This should be kept somewhere for a very long time. At this point, the USA is no better than Germany, for example the Yucca Montape depot in the US state of Nevada has been discussed for years. A few days ago, the Biden government announced that it would finally present new plans in this regard in the coming months.

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