Bill Gates, Warren Buffett Private Power Firms Team Up To Build US Nuclear Power Reactor

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd June, 2021) microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said his advanced nuclear reactor company TerraPower has teamed up with billionaire investor Warren Buffet's power firm PacifiCorp to build a so-called Natrium nuclear power facility on the site of a retiring coal plant in the US state of Wyoming.

"Wyoming has been a leader in energy for over a century and we hope our investment in Natrium will allow Wyoming to stay in the lead for many decades to come," Gates said in a live-streamed speech marking the launch of the project.

The reactor would be just the second nuclear plant built in the United States in the last 20 years by TerraPower, which Gates founded about 15 years ago, and PacifiCorp, which is owned by Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway investment company.

"This is our fastest and clearest course to becoming carbon negative," Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon said.

Proponents of nuclear energy say it is a superior emissions-free technology, although critics say advanced reactors like those involved in the Wyoming project could carry higher risks than conventional ones.

The Wyoming project will comprise a 345-megawatt sodium-cooled fast reactor with molten salt-based energy storage that could reach 500 MW during peak power cycles.

The project would cost about $1 billion, according to Gates, who achieved global recognition first as founder of the ubiquitous personal computers under Microsoft's Windows operating system before launching the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which focused on public health in the global south and has played a role in the global response to the coronavirus pandemic.�