TerraPower Secures Approval for New Nuclear Reactor in Wyoming

TerraPower, the nuclear energy startup founded by Bill Gates, has received approval to build a new nuclear reactor in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted the authorization this week, marking the first permit issued by the NRC in nearly a decade, according to TechCrunch.

TerraPower’s “Natrium” reactor has been designed in partnership with GE Vernova Hitachi. The reactor is capable of generating 345 megawatts of electricity, making it about two-thirds smaller than modern full-scale reactors. However, it remains several times larger than the small modular reactors developed by other startups.

The Natrium reactor differs from most reactors built over the past 50 years. While conventional reactors are cooled using water, the Natrium reactor will be cooled using molten sodium.

According to TerraPower, this represents a safer technology. The NRC has approved a commercial reactor cooled by a medium other than water for the first time in more than 40 years.

The reactor will operate by storing excess molten sodium. When electricity demand is low, nuclear fission will continue, and the heated sodium will store the generated energy. This stored energy can later be used to compensate for shortfalls in solar and wind power.

The NRC’s approval is significant because TerraPower followed a lengthy permitting process that allows construction on privately owned land. Although the U.S. Department of Energy recently relaxed certain safety regulations, those changes apply only to land owned by the agency.

Due to the rapidly growing electricity demand from data centers, the Trump administration has been encouraging the construction of new nuclear reactors. Technology companies and their founders are investing in more than five dozen nuclear startups. Investors have also become increasingly active, injecting more than $1 billion into nuclear startups in recent months. TerraPower alone has raised $1.7 billion, including a $650 million funding round that concluded in June 2024.

However, nuclear power remains one of the most expensive forms of new electricity generation. The declining costs of solar, wind, and battery technologies have made competition even tougher. Although nuclear startups hope to reduce costs through large-scale production, this theory has yet to be proven.

DBTech/BMT/OR