The Wall Street Journal covers the administration’s $80 billion plan to scale AP1000 reactors, but the real opportunity is bigger than one design as advanced nuclear now spans microreactors, modular systems, and gigawatt-scale plants, a range that can serve data centers, industrial loads, military sites, and utilities alike...
A recent report highlights the growing financial and strategic significance of Blykalla’s partnership with Studsvik and Evroc, as the companies move forward on plans to develop Sweden’s first nuclear-powered data centers...
Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Artificial Intelligence, Data centers & Digital Infra, Fission, Future of Energy, International support for nuclear, NEWS, Nuclear innovation, Nuclear R&D, Portfolio Venture, Private companies
Wyoming Governor, Mark Gordon, together with a broad coalition of high-ranking federal, state and industry partners, announced that Bill Gates' advanced nuclear venture, TerraPower, selected Wyoming to be the state in which they will build and operate their advanced nuclear Natrium™ reactor, replacing a coal-fired plant at a yet-to-be-selected Rocky Mountain Power facility.
The project, with a combination of private and federal funding and supported by Wyoming's legislature, which passed HB 74, will allow the development of a first-of-a-kind, fully functioning advanced nuclear power plant that is expected to validate the design, construction and operational features of the Natrium technology and enable Wyoming, which leads the country in coal exports, to remain a leader in a form of energy best suited to replace coal.
The Governor, in his remarks, clearly sought to straddle the complexity of competing interests in Wyoming, which is home to some of the largest fossil fuel companies in the country, while announcing this "game-changing and monumental" news.
“Earlier this year, I set a goal for Wyoming to be a carbon negative state, and continue to use fossil fuels. I am not going to abandon any of our fossil fuel industry, it is absolutely essential to our state and we believe very strongly is our fastest and clearest course to being carbon negative.
I do want to say, that it is the bedrock of our economy, in many ways, and as that, it has provided us with enormous amounts of capital and money to be able to do great things with wildlife, our landscape and our environment.
But this historic announcement helps Wyoming meet the first part of that objective. Nuclear power is clearly a part of my "all of the above" strategy, for energy in Wyoming, it will be the first of a new generation of nuclear plants that are smaller, modular in design and are equipped with enhanced safety measures. This facility will also result in an overall reduction of CO2 being released in Wyoming.
You may access the Wyoming PBS video of this announcement by clicking the image below.
https://youtu.be/hHzwwtSTbxY
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), awarded TerraPower $80 million in initial funding from the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) to demonstrate the Natrium technology in October 2020. TerraPower signed the cooperative agreement with DOE in May 2021.
In December, 2020, Staffan Qvist, Paweł Gładysz, Łukasz Bartela and Anna Sowizdzał published at study that looked at the issue of how best to retrofit coal power plants for decarbonization in Poland. They published their findings in Retrofit Decarbonization of Coal Power Plants—a Case Study for Poland, showing that decarbonization retrofits worked best using high-temperature small modular reactor to replace coal boilers.
Learn more at: GeekWire's Bill Gates’ TerraPower will build its first next-gen nuclear reactor in Wyoming, by Lisa Stiffler, June 3, 2021 and at TerraPower's joint announcement with PacifCorp and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, June 2, 2021.
Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Brilliant thinkers, Carbon emissions, Construction costs, Energy abundance, Future of Energy, Government support, History Timeline, History-making, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear innovation, Politicians supporting nuclear, Solving climate, US technological leadership, Zero emission energy
NuScale Power achieved a major milestone with far-reaching implications, by being the first private company to receive approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for an advanced reactor design. As NuScale's Chairman and CEO, John Hopkins so aptly said: “This is a significant milestone not only for NuScale, but also for the entire U.S. nuclear sector and the other advanced nuclear technologies that will follow. This clearly establishes the leadership of NuScale and the U.S. in the race to bring SMRs to market. The approval of NuScale’s design is an incredible accomplishment and we would like to extend our deepest thanks to the NRC for their comprehensive review, to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for its continued commitment to our successful private-public partnership to bring the country’s first SMR to market, and to the many other individuals who have dedicated countless hours to make this extraordinary moment a reality.”
As exciting as this development is, NuScale's design is just the first of many new advanced reactor designs that will be applying for NRC approval—and it is one of the least innovative. NuScale Power has developed a new form factor—a small modular design—for the older light water reactor (LWR) technology that has been the basis of traditional nuclear power plants. This "half step" redesign, deploying a modular reactor, enables NuScale to factory fabricate their NuScale Power Modules,™ each capable of generating 60 MW of electricity and generating more economy of scale in the process. NuScale's scalable design—where plants can deploy up to 12 individual power modules—offers the benefits of carbon-free energy and reduces the early financial commitments associated with gigawatt-sized nuclear facilities, which has been seen as a major stumbling block for regions seeking clean energy but where a Gigaton-sized nuclear power plant was too big.
Read more about this move at Business Wire: "NuScale Power Makes History as the First Ever Small Modular Reactor to Receive U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Design Approval."
Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Future of Energy, Government support, History Timeline, History-making, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear innovation, US competitiveness, US technological leadership
Sign up to receive Nucleation Insights
For Current Investors
(Note: Must be logged in at AngelList)
Nucleation Direct Messages
Nucleation (Fund I) Posts
Your Portfolio Dashboard
Your Funding Page
How to Contact Us
© 2025 Nucleation Capital | Terms & Policies
