Bill Gates Builds a Sophisticated Nuclear Reactor of USD 4 billion

 


Bill Gates seems serious about promoting nuclear power. TerraPower, the startup he co-founded and funded, will build a nuclear reactor in the Kemmerer, Wyoming area, formerly known as a coal and gas mining area.

The cost of making it is estimated at USD 4 billion , half borne by TerraPower and half by the US government. TerraPower CEO, Chris Levesque, said this development will absorb up to 2,000 workers.


The area was selected taking into account various factors, such as community support, geological, soil and seismic conditions. When completed, the nuclear reactor will produce 345 megawatts of power and may increase to 500 megawatts.


As an illustration, 1,000 megawatts can provide energy for a medium-sized city and a small town requires about 1 megawatt.


"The construction received a large grant from the government. This is important because the US government and the US nuclear reactor industry are already lagging behind other countries," said Levesque.


"China and Russia continue to build new plants with advanced technology like ours and they want to export them to many other countries around the world. So the US government is worried that the US is not moving forward here," he said.



The TerraPower nuclear reactor has various breakthroughs, developed with GE-Hitachi. The cooling system uses liquid sodium, not water. Sodium has a higher boiling point and can absorb more heat, reducing the risk of explosion.


In addition, this nuclear reactor with sodium does not require an external energy source to operate the cooling system, thus minimizing the danger. The size of the plant is also smaller than a conventional nuclear reactor. Lastly, these nuclear plants also produce less waste.


Although it is still quite controversial today, nuclear energy is beneficial for the future of the world because it can counteract climate change, as Bill Gates said recently


According to Bill Gates, who has just released the book How to Avoid Climate Disaster, nuclear power does have to face challenges because of its negative reputation, such as being associated with the atomic bomb or radioactive disaster. But it must be overcome because nuclear energy is very important.



Currently, the need for clean energy is getting bigger. The operation of nuclear power plants can be a solution because it does not release greenhouse gas emissions at all.


 Bill Gates mentions new innovations in nuclear technology, of which he is also one of the investors, making nuclear energy more secure and affordable. Several countries in the world are starting to want to adopt it.


Naturally nuclear energy has a bad reputation because of the great catastrophe it presented in the past. Call it the damage to the Chernobyl plant in 1986 in Ukraine and the nuclear plant disaster in Fukushima, Japan in 2011 following the earthquake and tsunami.


"In fact, nuclear is actually safer than other power sources. Coal, natural gas pipelines exploded. Deaths per unit from these plants are much higher (than nuclear)," Bill Gates claims.


"There is a new generation of nuclear power that solves its economic problems which are very big problems. And at the same time, revolutionizes its security," he added.


"As we work through those technical issues as well as the costs, I hope people will be more open minded to see how safe the next generation will be," said Bill Gates.

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