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CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A small city in Wyoming, the largest coal-mining state in the United States, Bill GatesA supported experimental nuclear power project near a coal-fired power plant that will soon shut down, authorities said on Tuesday.
Bellevue, Washington-based TerraPower will build its Natrium plant in the coal-fired southwestern Wyoming city of Kemmerer of 2,600. Naughton power plant Operated by PacifiCorp’s subsidiary, Rocky Mountain Power, it will close in 2025.
“Our innovative technology will help ensure reliable electricity generation continues as we transform our energy system and create new, well-paid jobs in Wyoming,” TerraPower President and CEO Chris Levesque said in a statement.
The project will employ 2,000 people at the time of construction and 250 when operational in a state where the coal industry has been laid off.
If it is as reliable as conventional nuclear power, the 345-megawatt power plant will produce enough climate-friendly energy to serve nearly 250,000 homes. The announcement comes days after officials from the US and other countries pledged to continue working to limit greenhouse gas emissions at the global climate change summit in Scotland.
doorsIn June, Rocky Mountain Power, co-founder of Microsoft and chairman of TerraPower, announced plans for the Wyoming project, along with President Joe Biden’s administration and officials from the state that produces about 40% of the nation’s coal. Following the announcement, four Wyoming cities were competing for the project.
Levesque told reporters that the pool of similarly sized workers operating the coal plant was a leading factor in the decision to put the plant at Kemmerer.
“We think these workers are fully prepared to run Natrium. Of course they’ll have to go through some retraining,” Levesque said.
Levesque said the development of a simulator that will train workers to operate the nuclear power plant will be part of the project’s seven-year development, with construction starting in 2024.
Proponents of the project, which includes a sodium-cooled fast reactor and a molten salt energy store, say it will outperform, be safer, and cost less than conventional nuclear power.
“Natrium will be the next advancement in security. More importantly, it will not rely on external power sources, pumps and extra equipment to help the facility recover in an emergency,” Levesque said, referring to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster caused by a tsunami that disabled emergency generators.
The high heat transfer properties of sodium will allow air cooling of the Natrium plant. Levesque said this would allow the facility to be shut down quickly in the event of an emergency, and the absence of emergency generators and pumps would save costs.
Others are skeptical about the benefits of sodium compared to water for cooling, as in conventional nuclear power plants.
“There are many problems with using liquid sodium. “It’s a very volatile material that can ignite when exposed to air or water,” he said.
Countries including the United States have experimented with sodium-cooled fast reactors for decades, but only Russia has fielded such a reactor on a large, power-generating scale, Lyman said.
“I honestly don’t understand the motivation,” Lyman said. “There are some people who are strong advocates for just that, and they kind of won the day by persuading here. Bill Gates This is good technology to follow.”
Other sites considered for the plant were the Wyodak plant near Gillette in coal-rich northeast Wyoming, the Jim Bridger plant outside of Rock Springs in southwestern Wyoming, and the Dave Johnston plant near Glenrock in east-central Wyoming.
Closing Naughton Within a few years, the coal-fired power station at Kemmerer endangered a local mine that only supplies coal to the plant.
About 130 miles (210 kilometers) northeast of Salt Lake City, Kemmerer is a destination for fossil enthusiasts at the nearby Fossil Butte National Monument and private fossil quarries. It’s also home to the first JC Penney location, a store called the Golden Rule, opened in 1902 by James Cash Penney.
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