TerraPower, a Bellevue, Washington-based nuclear power company co-founded by Bill Gateshas secured one of the largest funding rounds for a private company in the US, and one of the largest for a nuclear power company. We are talking about 750 million dollars.
TerraPower’s primary mission is to develop nuclear fission reactor technologies that are considered safer and more efficient for carbon-neutral power generation. As you can see, it is in line with the ideas of Gates.
The company works with GE-Hitachi on a nuclear reactor demonstration project funded in part by the United States Department of Energy, which it will be built in Wyoming and will be operational in 2028, producing up to 500 megawatts of power.
In addition to working on the reactor concept, TerraPower has a program focused on medical applications of nuclear technologyapplications that could take advantage of spent nuclear fuel.
Nuclear power currently provides nearly 19% of America’s electricity. Renewable energy sources contribute 20.1% and fossil fuels 60.8%.
Gates founded TerraPower in 2006 and is its chairman. For most of its existence, the company’s research has been conducted in a laboratory adjacent to the Intellectual Ventures facility in Bellevue.
In late 2019, TerraPower established a 65,000-square-foot research facility in Everett, Washington, near Paine Field and one of Boeing’s aircraft factories.
Gates has been lobbying lawmakers for many years to engage in public-private partnerships to fund nuclear energy innovation. Gates already talked about it in 2015.
The Microsoft co-founder told GeekWire last year that “the main reason why [la energía nuclear] failing now is that the construction of the reactors has become very expensive. They just aren’t competitive, especially in a place where natural gas is so cheap.“.
TerraPower is one of several climate-related companies founded and/or funded by Gates, which also runs Breakthrough Energy, name of several organizations, founded by Bill Gates in 2015which aim to accelerate innovation in sustainable energy.