United States regulators have issued the first permit in eight years for the construction of a commercial nuclear reactor, which will be built in Wyoming with the support of Microsoft founder Bill Gates. This was reported by AP, writes UNN.
Details
TerraPower's project involves the creation of a unique sodium-cooled facility, which will be the country's first approved commercial non-light water reactor in four decades. Construction of the approximately $4 billion facility is expected to begin in the coming weeks, with full operation of the plant scheduled for 2030.
Technological features and power of the sodium reactor
The new power plant near Kemmerer will use liquid sodium instead of traditional water for cooling and heat transfer, allowing it to operate at significantly higher temperatures and lower pressures.
The reactor's design capacity is 345 megawatts, but during peak loads, the system can generate up to 500 megawatts of energy thanks to innovative heat storage systems.
This volume of generation is enough to provide electricity to about 400,000 private homes, making the technology promising for stabilizing power grids in regions with high consumption.
Strategic importance for energy-intensive data centers
Bill Gates, who is the main investor in TerraPower, sees next-generation nuclear energy as a key tool for powering modern data centers needed for the development of artificial intelligence.
As AI systems require colossal amounts of stable electricity, small modular sodium-cooled reactors can become an environmentally friendly alternative to coal-fired power plants. TerraPower President Chris Levesque emphasized that obtaining the permit was the result of thousands of hours of work and marks the beginning of a new era in the American nuclear industry.