WASHINGTON: Bill Gates wants to invest billions more dollars into nuclear energy via his firm TerraPower, western media reported. The firm broke ground last week on a new nuclear power facility in Wyoming that Bill Gates has pushed as an example of how such construction can be less expensive and simpler.
He said that he has put in over a billion, and will put in billions more in TerraPower. He made these remarks during an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation.
Gates told CNN that they have been eager to go back to the basics and do what people have always said should be done, which is to calm the plant with metal rather than water.
He said that means that the issue of high pressure and extra heat when you shut down is completely addressed and so, the complexity that’s meant that nuclear has gotten more expensive and complex as it has gone from first to third generation, they changed that completely.
Gates said that in addition to the support from him and other private investors, the federal government is also backing the TerraPower project due to its benefits for energy security, and that there are no risks or higher costs for usefulness customers.
While the overall cost for building the reactor in Wyoming was close to 10 billion dollars, Bill Gates said that costs will fall and the payoff for investors will increase as more units are built — particularly as the nascent AI industry puts ever increasing demands for power on America’s electric grid.
Bill Gates said that once they get to like their 10th unit and they have their component costs down they shouldn’t expect people [who] buy electricity, to pay higher prices.
He said TerraPower’s approach can make nuclear power competitive with sources of energy like natural gas. He hoped that the firm can meet “that very aggressive cost target” and be profitable.
