• Bill Gates, the founder of TerraPower, thinks existing energy infrastructure in West Virginia could be a good fit for his Natrium nuclear reactor.
  • Gates is currently trying to transform a coal-fired power plant in Wyoming into a nuclear one.
  • Wyoming and West Virginia are the highest coal-powered energy producers in the U.S.

At 67 years old, Bill Gates stays busy, and one of the biggest projects on the former CEO and co-founder of Microsoft’s plate is redesigning nuclear power for a new era. With the future of energy production under threat—from war in Ukraine and a warming world—Gates is forging ahead with his company TerraPower and its Natrium nuclear reactor.

In November 2021, Gates announced that TerraPower’s demonstrator project for his Natrium reactor will be built in the coal town of Kemmerer, Wyoming. The $4 billion project will transform a coal-fired power plant into a nuclear one while also training the plant’s employees to become nuclear technicians.

On Monday, Gates’ apparent strategy of winning over coal country with next-gen nuclear jobs continued with a tour of a defunct coal-fired American Electric Power (AEP) plant in Glasgow, West Virginia. A longstanding vanguard of coal-powered energy (even amidst rising evidence of its contribution to climate change), the state repealed its ban on nuclear energy in 2021.

It’s a big step, considering West Virginia is the second highest coal-powered energy producer. The first? Wyoming. Old power plants like the one in Kemmerer and Glasgow are so attractive because they’re already connected to the grid.

Founded in 2006, TerraPower uses a Natrium reactor designed to work in tandem with wind and solar power by being a sort of safety net when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. Natrium is a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) that uses liquid sodium as a coolant rather than water (like modern nuclear power plants). This sodium coolant works at higher temperatures and lower pressures, which makes the reactor safer overall.

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But the best part of Natrium’s design is that it’s also paired with a molten salt storage system that draws heat from the reactor to raise the temperature of salt, which is then deposited in a hot salt storage tank. Grid operators can then pull energy from these tanks when needed, especially during peak hours when green energy sources can’t keep up.

These reactors are a technological challenge in themselves, but geopolitics has also confounded Gates’ push toward nuclear energy. In 2019, TerraPower pulled out of a tech demonstrator in China due to declining U.S.-China relations during the Trump Administration. And in 2022, another big problem arrived in the guise of the war in Ukraine.

The Natrium reactor runs on high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel. This fuel, enriched between 5 percent to 20 percent (weapons grade is 85 percent or more), helps Natrium last longer and create more energy from less fuel. There’s just one problem: Russia is the world’s main supplier. In mid-December, TerraPower announced major delays to its Wyoming project because of this supply chain snafu.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 40 metric tons of HALEU fuel will be needed by 2030, and has plans to ramp up production, but so far those plans haven’t helped alleviate the delays affecting TerraPower, who has poured millions into shoring up domestic HALEU production.

Although Gates is eager to move his nuclear ambitions to the east coast, everything’s on hold until the Wyoming demonstrator is up and running in 2028. But if things go according to plan, the future of U.S. energy could very well sprout from the remains of its coal-fired predecessor.

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Darren Orf

Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.