Bill Gates will build an innovative nuclear power plant …

The founder of Microsoft Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett presented this Wednesday “SodiumA new model of nuclear power plant that uses renewable energy and will be built in Wyoming, United States, the state with the largest coal production in the country.

The new nuclear power plant has advanced small reactors that operate on fuels different from traditional fuels, a technology without greenhouse gas emissions which can supplement the electricity supply in situations of low wind and solar power generation.

The initiative is led by the TerraPower company, founded by Bill Gates 15 years ago, in conjunction with Warren Buffet’s energy company, PacifiCorp. Both defined the project as “a turning point for the energy industry”.

“The Natrium reactor and its integrated power system redefine what nuclear power can be: competitive and flexible,” TerraPower noted on its website. Although the exact site where the plant will be built will be announced later this year, it was expected to be located at a location where a coal-fired plant previously operated.

How is Natrium

TerraPower assures us that this is a new concept for the generation and storage of energy, since it combines a fast sodium reactor with a molten salt storage system. capable of producing 345 megawatts of electricity.

The company also says the storage system will have the capacity to increase power output to 500 megawatts of electricity for more than 5.5 hours if needed, an amount that would provide power to around 400,000 homes.

“Natrium is a new technology that aims to simplify the types of existing reactors,” explains the Spanish Nuclear Industry Forum, of which GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy is a partner, the company that developed this technology with TerraPower.

In turn, he points out that the nuclear reactor, a traveling wave type reactor (propagation wave, in English) use depleted uranium or natural uranium as fuel, and all non-nuclear equipment will be installed in separate buildings, reducing installation complexity and cost.

TerraPower Chairman Chris Levesque explained that the construction of the pilot plant will take approximately seven years. “We need this kind of clean energy in the system in the 2030s,” he told reporters of Natrium, which is part of the US Department of Energy’s advanced reactor demonstration program. .

By following this line, TerraPower received $ 80 million in an initial financial package from the Ministry of Energy to demonstrate the Natrium project, according to the specialized media Business Insider.

The department has in turn pledged to provide additional funds over the next few years, while Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon stressed during the presentation that this is “the quickest path and the clearer ”for the State towards a“ negative carbon footprint ”.

“This small modular reactor will provide electricity on demand and lead to a general reduction in CO2 emissions. It will also create hundreds of well-paying jobs through the construction and operation of the unit, ”Gordon noted on Twitter.

It’s safer?

This type of project is also raising concerns in certain sectors. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a nonprofit science group in the United States, has warned that advanced reactors such as Natrium’s could mean a higher risk than conventional.

“The technologies are undoubtedly different from current reactors, but it is not at all obvious that they are better. In many cases, they are worse in terms of safety, the possibility of serious accidents and nuclear proliferation, ”said Edwin Lyman, director of UCS, in a report titled“ Advanced is not always better. “

In it, the group warns that fuel for many advanced reactors would have to be enriched at a much higher rate than traditional fuel, meaning the fuel supply chain could be an attractive target for terrorists seeking to create a rudimentary nuclear weapon.

“If nuclear energy is to play a greater role in mitigating climate change, the newly built reactors they must prove to be safer and cheaper than current reactors, ”they insisted.

For his part, Lévesque, president of TerraPower, defended himself by asserting that nuclear power plants will reduce the risks of nuclear proliferation because they reduce nuclear waste in a generalized manner.