Bill Gates said that he’s «quite confident» that a next-generation nuclear power project will continue regardless of the balance of power in Washington next year.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates said Sunday that he’s «quite confident» that a project will continue regardless of the balance of power in Washington next year, saying «support for nuclear power is very impressive in both parties.»
Gates and his energy company TerraPower are spearheading a major project that broke ground in Kemmerer, Wyoming last week — a nuclear power plant that relies on sodium cooling rather than water, which is billed as being both a simplified process while making being safer, and could make nuclear energy a source of low-cost electricity. The company applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March for a construction permit an advanced nuclear reactor using sodium.
The project is on track to start producing power by 2030, and marks the first time in decades that a company has tried to set up the reactors as part of commercial power in the U.S. Nuclear power works without spewing out climate-changing greenhouse gasses. The site of new plant is adjacent to the Naughton Power Plant, which is set to stop burning coal in 2026 and natural gas a decade later, according to The Associated Press.
