What nuclear company is Bill Gates investing in?
Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates has been the chair of nuclear reactor company TerraPower since 2006. A nuclear reactor company cofounded by Bill Gates signed a deal with the United Arab Emirates to explore building advanced reactors in the Gulf country.
DUBAI, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Bill Gates' advanced nuclear reactor company TerraPower LLC and the United Arab Emirates' state owned nuclear company ENEC said on Monday they have agreed to study the potential development of advanced reactors in the UAE and abroad.
° TerraPower — backed by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates — has a 50-50 construction cost share agreement with the Department of Energy, with an estimated price tag of $4 billion. The company received an initial installment of $80 million in 2020.
TerraPower announced plans to build its Natrium reactor1 near a retiring coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming, which currently generates almost 90% of its electricity generation from fossil fuels.
Most investors will not be able to own TerraPower stock until after the IPO. We have no idea when the IPO will occur at this early stage. It's likely years away. The Wyoming powerplant is not expected to begin operating until 2030, presumably marking the onset of significant revenue generations.
TerraPower, the nuclear innovation company founded by Bill Gates, announced a $750 million funding raise co-led by Gates and SK, a large South Korean conglomerate that is one of South Korea's largest energy providers. The money will go toward the development of nuclear energy innovations and nuclear medicine.
It could be in operation by 2029, using a next-generation technology called natrium, which is the Latin name for sodium. Sodium-cooled reactors are three times more efficient than traditional water-cooled reactors, which means significantly less nuclear waste.
From its beginnings over a decade ago, TerraPower has made reduction of weapons risks a foundational principle. Natrium reactors are uranium fueled.
TerraPower is ranked #26 on the Best Energy Companies to Work For in Washington list.
The average TerraPower salary ranges from approximately $83,789 per year for Accounts Payable Specialist to $215,795 per year for Design Manager. Average TerraPower hourly pay ranges from approximately $28.51 per hour for Facilities Technician to $48.91 per hour for Control Room Operator.
What happened to TerraPower?
"In February 2022, Russia's invasion of Ukraine caused the only commercial source of HALEU fuel to no longer be a viable part of the supply chain for TerraPower, as well as for others in our industry," Chris Levesque, the CEO of TerraPower, said in a written statement sent to the company's newsletter recipients on ...
Next-gen nuclear: Climate change is now renewing the world's interest in nuclear, and TerraPower's Natrium technology could play a pivotal role in making nuclear power a big part of the clean energy future. In a Natrium plant, the nuclear fission reaction is used to heat liquid sodium metal, rather than water.
TerraPower has 173 employees as of Dec 21.
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Chris Levesque is president and chief executive officer of TerraPower, and also serves as a member of the TerraPower Board.
Cameco Corporation (NYSE:CCJ), Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK), NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE), and Vista Energy, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:VIST) are some best nuclear energy stocks to buy. Click here to continue reading and check out 5 Best Nuclear Energy Stocks To Buy Today.
TerraPower is developing a class of nuclear fast reactors termed traveling wave reactors (TWR). TWR places a small core of enriched fuel in the center of a much larger mass of non-fissile material, in this case depleted uranium.
STP, along with its operator, STP Nuclear Operating Company, is owned by the city of Austin (Austin Energy, 16 percent), the city of San Antonio (CPS Energy, 40 percent), and NRG Energy (44 percent). STPEGS houses two electric-generating reactors that provide energy to more than two million Texas households.
Constellation Energy Corporation boasts the largest fleet of nuclear power plants with 21 nuclear units, and the electricity generated from it amounts to half the nation's carbon-free energy and 20% of the nation's total electricity.
The company said its “thermal energy storage technology uses renewable energy to heat carbon blocks to temperatures so hot they glow like the sun,” and then later releases that heat “on demand to the grid as electricity.”
Who is building new nuclear power plants?
China is the breakaway global leader in new nuclear construction. China has 21 nuclear reactors under construction which will have a capacity for generating more than 21 gigawatts of electricity, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Global number of nuclear reactors under construction 2023, by country. As of June 2023, there were 57 nuclear reactors under construction worldwide. China ranked first with 21 units.
TerraPower is a nuclear energy technology company based in beautiful Bellevue, Washington.
Nuclear power plants primarily use a specific type of uranium (U-235) for nuclear fission because its atoms are easily split apart. Although uranium is about 100 times more common than silver, U-235 is relatively rare, at just over 0.7% of natural uranium.
When deuterium and tritium fuse, they create a helium atom, which has two protons and two neutrons, and an energetic neutron. These energetic neutrons could be the basis for generating energy in future fusion power plants. On Earth, fusion has the potential to supply safe, clean, and relatively limitless energy.
