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The nuclear power plant of the future will send the coal-fired power plant to the dustbin of history.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has authorized the construction of TerraPower's Natrium reactor in Wyoming. The decision paves the way for the country's first new-generation commercial nuclear power plant of this type. The permit concerns the Kemmerer Unit 1 power unit, a 345 megawatt sodium-cooled reactor. The project is supported by entrepreneur Bill Gates.
TerraPower plans to start construction in the coming weeks. The power unit will be built next to a coal-fired power plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming, which is being prepared for closure. The station is scheduled to be launched in the early 2030s. The developers expect that the new reactor will gradually replace the decommissioned coal-fired power plants and connect to the existing energy infrastructure of the region.
The Natrium design combines two elements. The basis is a fast reactor with liquid metal cooling on sodium. The second component is an energy storage system based on molten salts. The reactor itself is designed for a base capacity of 345 megawatts, but the built-in energy storage allows you to temporarily increase output to 500 megawatts during high-consumption hours. The station is capable of storing heat during normal operation and then quickly converting the stored energy into additional electrical power.
The document was the first such permit for a new-generation commercial reactor in the United States. The Commission completed the technical review in 18 months. Initially, the procedure was supposed to take about 27 months. TerraPower submitted an application in March 2024, and officially began reviewing the project in May of the same year.
The company claims that the preparation of the documents and discussion of the project with the regulator took more than four years. The process included pre-application consultations and thousands of hours of engineering and analytical work during the review. According to TerraPower representatives, the detailed prepared materials and prompt responses to the commission's questions helped speed up the process. An additional role was played by the federal policy of supporting nuclear energy.
In recent years, the US authorities have been trying to speed up the approval of new reactors. The administration of Donald Trump has set a goal to increase the installed nuclear generation capacity in the country to 400 gigawatts by 2050, which is about four times the current level. Earlier, officials signed orders aimed at reducing the time for reviewing projects in the nuclear industry.
The energy storage system is one of the key features of the Natrium project. The use of molten salts allows the station to operate stably with a base load and at the same time quickly increase energy output during peak demand hours. TerraPower claims that among the new generation reactor projects, such an architecture combines a nuclear reactor and a large energy storage system in a single complex for the first time.
The reactor will be powered by HALEU fuel, that is, highly enriched low-enriched uranium. The concentration of the uranium-235 isotope in such fuel is higher than in traditional fuel assemblies for conventional reactors. The U.S. Department of Energy has already allocated funds to develop its own HALEU production and reduce dependence on foreign suppliers.
The Natrium project is funded with the support of the federal government. As part of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, the U.S. Department of Energy is ready to allocate up to two billion dollars for construction. If construction and start-up go according to schedule, the Kemmerer plant will become the country's first new-generation industrial-scale nuclear power plant.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has authorized the construction of TerraPower's Natrium reactor in Wyoming. The decision paves the way for the country's first new-generation commercial nuclear power plant of this type. The permit concerns the Kemmerer Unit 1 power unit, a 345 megawatt sodium-cooled reactor. The project is supported by entrepreneur Bill Gates.
TerraPower plans to start construction in the coming weeks. The power unit will be built next to a coal-fired power plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming, which is being prepared for closure. The station is scheduled to be launched in the early 2030s. The developers expect that the new reactor will gradually replace the decommissioned coal-fired power plants and connect to the existing energy infrastructure of the region.
The Natrium design combines two elements. The basis is a fast reactor with liquid metal cooling on sodium. The second component is an energy storage system based on molten salts. The reactor itself is designed for a base capacity of 345 megawatts, but the built-in energy storage allows you to temporarily increase output to 500 megawatts during high-consumption hours. The station is capable of storing heat during normal operation and then quickly converting the stored energy into additional electrical power.
The document was the first such permit for a new-generation commercial reactor in the United States. The Commission completed the technical review in 18 months. Initially, the procedure was supposed to take about 27 months. TerraPower submitted an application in March 2024, and officially began reviewing the project in May of the same year.
The company claims that the preparation of the documents and discussion of the project with the regulator took more than four years. The process included pre-application consultations and thousands of hours of engineering and analytical work during the review. According to TerraPower representatives, the detailed prepared materials and prompt responses to the commission's questions helped speed up the process. An additional role was played by the federal policy of supporting nuclear energy.
In recent years, the US authorities have been trying to speed up the approval of new reactors. The administration of Donald Trump has set a goal to increase the installed nuclear generation capacity in the country to 400 gigawatts by 2050, which is about four times the current level. Earlier, officials signed orders aimed at reducing the time for reviewing projects in the nuclear industry.
The energy storage system is one of the key features of the Natrium project. The use of molten salts allows the station to operate stably with a base load and at the same time quickly increase energy output during peak demand hours. TerraPower claims that among the new generation reactor projects, such an architecture combines a nuclear reactor and a large energy storage system in a single complex for the first time.
The reactor will be powered by HALEU fuel, that is, highly enriched low-enriched uranium. The concentration of the uranium-235 isotope in such fuel is higher than in traditional fuel assemblies for conventional reactors. The U.S. Department of Energy has already allocated funds to develop its own HALEU production and reduce dependence on foreign suppliers.
The Natrium project is funded with the support of the federal government. As part of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, the U.S. Department of Energy is ready to allocate up to two billion dollars for construction. If construction and start-up go according to schedule, the Kemmerer plant will become the country's first new-generation industrial-scale nuclear power plant.
