Gates’ TerraPower Advances the Natrium

Bill Gates' TerraPower has "broken ground" at the future site of the Natrium Power Plant, what will be an advanced nuclear power plant. This follows the acceptance of TerraPower's Construction Permit Application for review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in May, 2024.

Bill Gates wrote about this ground-breaking in Kemmerer, Wyoming on his GatesNotes blog and he provided further background on his interest in advanced nuclear, which started as far back as 2008. It just so happened that when he fell in love with the density, inherent safety and superior performance of advanced nuclear power, he was able to afford to hire a team and launch TerraPower on his own. It also didn't hurt that he happened to be buddies with Warren Buffet, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the company that owns PacifiCorp, which owns a lot of struggling coal plants, so he was able to score a site on the property of a retiring coal plant, on which to plan to build his demonstration reactor.

In fact, advanced nuclear holds tremendous prospects for resurrecting the value of these ill-fated plants and the economic vitality of those regions suffering from the closures of coal, most of which are closing as a result of competition form cheap natural gas that is also better suited for being "dispatched," at a minute's notice, if, let's say, the wind stops blowing. As many as 80% of these plants could, according to a study done by the DOE, be converted to advanced nuclear plants cost-effectively, because they are reuse turbines, generators and even transmission lines that are already there. Taking what are currently brownfield sites with very little value because of the toxicity, health and carbon-impacts of coal and converting them to clean power plants that use advanced fission to generate both power and heat, is starting to look like a very lucrative endeavor.

No wonder Bill Gates has already invested over a billion dollars and has committed to putting billions more of his own funds into this venture. Being the sixth wealthiest person in the world gives him this option. And, if you think that, because you read a lot and you've had exeptional success with a software company, that you have what it takes to create the best advanced nuclear technology and believe that it will be rapidly adopted and deployed around the world and possibly put the remainder of the world's coal plants out of business, investing your billions into that makes total sense.

For the rest of us, however, investing into a venture fund like Nucleation Capital, which is dedicated to building a diversified pool of advanced nuclear ventures with various alternative designs, more than a few of which could find real traction within differing niches of the energy markets which also need power but may prefer a different configuration or set of features, may make more sense and pose considerably less risk. Especially when the fund provides low-cost participation, so that those of us not in the top ten wealthiest humans list, can access that fund without breaking the bank but nevertheless have a meaningful chance of participating in the growth of nuclear around the world.

Read Bill's GatesNotes announcement here: "We just broke ground on America’s first next-gen nuclear facility: Kemmerer, Wyoming will soon be home to the most advanced nuclear facility in the world" Bill Gates, June 10, 2024.

Bloomberg, Bill Gates Says He’s Ready to Put Billions Into Nuclear Power, by Caleb Mutua, June 16, 2024.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Brilliant thinkers, Construction costs, Energy transition, Future of Energy, Government support, History Timeline, History-making, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear innovation, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Solving climate, US competitiveness, US technological leadership, Zero emission energy

March 22, 2022

Tech Billionaires Rally around Nuclear

Billionaires are rallying around nuclear, according to a recent report from Pitchbook on venture investments in 2021. Notably, some of these billionaires, Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen, have spoken out about the need to both preserve existing nuclear and to "build 1,000 new state-of-the-art nuclear power plants in the U.S. and Europe right now."

This isn't exactly new, since billionaires like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel have been both investing and advocating for nuclear for years but, nevertheless, 2021 was a banner year for nuclear venture fundraising. Not just are billionaires excited about the prospects for nuclear energy to solve climate, a lot of non-billionaire investors are as well.

According to Pitchbooks, which tries to track all venture investment deals, a record $3.4 billion was plowed by investors into nuclear ventures, which was more than the amount invested in the prior decade combined. Fusion ventures were a major beneficiary of this growing investor interest, despite yet having progressed past the "science project stage" with Commonwealth Fusion raking in $1.8 billion by itself and Helion Energy raising $500 million, but the majority of the 28 deals that were closed were likely in fission.

There is clearly a trend around an increased level of investor interest in next generation nuclear and a willingness by investors to jump in to the sector. Nucleation Capital was also launched and made its first investments in 2021—which were reported to and presumably included in the analysis by Pitchbook. Our ability to do so a function of the same factors that have stimulated the rise in venture activity, which include:

1. Widespread recognition that nuclear energy deserves inclusion in green taxonomies and is a critical rare source of firm, clean power that competes against fossil fuels, not renewables.

2. 60+ years of commercial operating experience provide ample evidence that the risks of a nuclear accident are grossly overplayed by the press and nuclear's opponents.

3. Overly hyped radiation fears have been muted by a broader understanding of the beneficial effects of background levels of radiation that occur naturally in our environment.

4. Mastery of next-gen nuclear technology is vital to both national and international security so that Russian and Chinese providers do not succeed in supplying the world's future energy needs and thus being in a position to apply geopolitical pressures on developing nations.

5. Grassroots climate and clean energy advocacy has made its mark on the world stage at COP 26 and demanded not just to protect existing nuclear power plants but also to deploy next-generation designs.

6. Fast-growing wind and solar development have not proven an ability to deliver the level of decarbonization needed to meet climate goals, due to their intermittency and dependence on natural gas.

7. Longer term decarbonization goals will require energy abundance that is not feasible with current dilute sources of energy but require nuclear's ability to repower coal plants with clean energy.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the geo-political issues have risen to the top and have increased interest among many countries in eliminating dependence on natural gas even faster than previously planned. If there is a silver lining to the war being fought in Ukraine, it may be the added impetus that it has given to the global urgency to reduce gas dependence and build (or restart) nuclear energy. This reverses the prior trend, where gas (with externalized emissions) replaced nuclear energy, since the only fuel that really competes with nuclear is natural gas (so long as emissions can be externalized).

Learn more at Bloomberg, Tech Billionaires Rally Around Nuclear as Energy Crisis Looms, by Lizette Chapman, March 22, 2022. [PDF]

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Brilliant thinkers, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Climate innovation fund, Energy abundance, Future of Energy, Investor activity, LINKS, Nuclear financing, Nuclear innovation, US technological leadership, Venture capital support for nuclear, Zero emission energy

June 15, 2021

Nuclear-Powered Research Superyacht

Earth 300 is envisioned to be a nuclear-powered gigayacht with 22 state-of-the-art laboratories and a 13-story "science sphere," that will be used as a research and exploration vessel, designed to investigate climate change and other challenges facing the planet. With a futuristic design by naval architect Iván Salas Jefferson, the vessel is envisioned as an extreme technology platform, incorporating robotics, AI, and quantun computing.

The yacht, measuring 150 feet at its widest and almost a football field in length, will be longer than the Titanic and powered entirely by a TerraPower onboard molten-salt fission reactor, which is currently being developed by a consortium of companies, including Bill Gates' TerraPower, Southern Co. and Orano. With funding from IBM, Triton Submarines, EYOS Expeditions and RINA, a leader in maritime safety, the cost is expected to be $700 million. There will be room for 160 scientists, 165 crew members, 40 VIP guests and dozens of other expert and student researchers. The goal of Earth 300? To expand human knowledge and =understanding of the universe, "both above and below the ocean's surface," before the oceans have died.

Read Architectural Digest's This Nuclear-Powered Superyacht is Longer Than the Titanic and Costs $700 Million, by Dan Avery, June 15, 2021.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Future of Energy, History-making, International support for nuclear, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear innovation, Nuclear maritime propulsion, Private companies, Solving climate, Zero emission energy

June 3, 2021

Wyoming explores replacing coal with advanced nuclear

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

October 21, 2020

DOE announces funding for three advanced reactor builds

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected two teams—one led by TerraPower in partnership with GE Hitachi, building a 345 MWe sodium fast reactor with a molten salt energy storage system and one led by X-energy, which has designed a modular 80 MWe (scalable to a 320 MWe four-pack) high temperature gas-cooled reactor—to receive $80 million each in initial funding annually under the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).

In this program, DOE provides initial funding to develop, test, license and build advanced nuclear reactors within five to seven years of the award. DOE plans to invest about $3.2 billion over seven years in these projects that will be matched by the industry.

Simultaneously, the DOE approved a $1.4 billion multi-year cost-share award to the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) for the development and construction of the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP), a 720 MWe NuScale small modular nuclear power plant, made up of 12 small 60 MWe modules, to be located at DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory site. NuScale (shown in the image) is the first of the new designs to be approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Read more in Forbes: "America Steps Forward To Expand Nuclear Power."

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Capital reallocation, Climate innovation fund, Future of Energy, Government support, History Timeline, History-making, LINKS, Nuclear competitiveness, Nuclear financing, Nuclear R&D

June 29, 2020

Southern Company and TerraPower Prep for Testing on Molten Salt Reactor

Southern Company, a leading utility, is partnering with Bill Gate's TerraPower to develop a molten chloride fast reactor (MCFR) that uses liquid salts as both a coolant and fuel. Working with consortium of experts to accelerate this work, the group will begin testing in a $20 million test facility starting in 2021 while targeting to beta test their design in the late 2020s.

Read more at the Office of Nuclear Energy: Southern Company and TerraPower Prep for Testing on Molten Salt Reactor.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Climate innovation fund, Future of Energy, LINKS, Nuclear innovation, Public companies

October 7, 2019

Philanthropy’s Critical Nuclear Moment

Philanthropy’s potential role in the science and development of nuclear power is significantly constrained, both by the overlap with impact investors and the traditionally dominant role played by government, especially abroad. Yet, the urgency of the need to address climate with technical solutions demands more of those with the ability to donate. So, it may not surprise many, that there are now dozens of funders, grantees and other nonprofit organizations working in the pro-nculear space, who are committed to the mission of ensuring that nuclear thrives and succeeds in helping to decarbonize the planet.

Inside Philanthropy reporters interviewed more than a dozen of these individuals who share the belief that the fate of the Earth is dependent upon mankind's ability to support the continued deployment of safe and abundant nuclear, since, according to the IPCC and numerous key scientists, like James Hansen, it will be impossible to decarbonize the entire global economy with it within the appropriate time frame.

Among those interviewed included Armond Cohen, executive director and co-found of the non-profit Clean Air Task Force and Rachel Pritzker, president and founder of the Pritzker Innovation Fund, one of the earliest and best-known funders in the space, who sees nuclear a piece of a larger puzzle.

Sam Mar, VP at Arnold Ventures, noted that most philanthropic funding has gone to organizations supporting other types of zero-emission energy and that nuclear groups are significantly underfunded as a technology and industry group. This view was confirmed by Matthew Nisbet, who published a research paper analyzing climate funding and who found that no grants at all were focused on promoting nuclear energy but rather, if there were grants, they were used for opposing nuclear energy.

So the question is, if philanthropists do want to support nuclear power, how can they do it? According to Larry Kramer, president of the Hewlett Foundation, funders should be "helping to finish off the research and development on fourth-generation reactors, then helping develop poicies to implement and figure out where there is the support for siting new designs.

See Inside Philanthropy: Philanthropy's Critical Nuclear Moment or, if you don't have a subscription, see the reprint of the IP piece at Klean Industries.

Published by Nucleation Capital in Advanced Nuclear, Brilliant thinkers, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Climate innovation fund, Future of Energy, LINKS, Nuclear innovation, Nuclear R&D, Philanthropic support for nuclear, Reduced ecosystem impacts

July 14, 2019

Peter Diamandis on energy abundance and the future of nuclear

Peter Diamandis, Chairman and Co-Founder of Singularity University, founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, writes a tech blog. We were sent a copy of the email that he sent out to subscribers on the future of nuclear, which begins as follows:

Yes, I want nuclear energy *in my back yard*!

Extraordinary new innovations are giving us failsafe nuclear fission and the potential to achieve our age-old dream of fusion.

This year, Bill Gates commented: “Nuclear is ideal for dealing with climate change, because it is the only carbon-free, scalable energy source that’s available 24 hours a day. The problems with today’s reactors, such as the risk of accidents, can be solved through innovation.”

This blog is about convincing you to re-consider nuclear as a viable and critical idea. The upside of success is extraordinary, which is why, for the first time, we’re beginning to see venture capital make massive investments in the field.

Let’s dive in!

Read the rest of Diamandis' Tech Blog post: "Energy Abundance: The Future of Nuclear."

Published by Nucleation Capital in Brilliant thinkers, Carbon emissions, Climate change, Climate policy, Energy abundance, Future of Energy, LINKS, Nuclear innovation, Nuclear R&D, US technological leadership, Venture capital support for nuclear