Company, co-founded by Bill Gates, says project will serve as commercial blueprint for world deployment
TerraPower, the US nuclear innovation company co-founded by Bill Gates, announced the official start of construction on its flagship Natrium nuclear plant, which is on track to be the first utility-scale advanced nuclear power plant in the US.
The company said this “historic” moment follows the successful issuance last month of a construction permit by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and represents the culmination of years of innovation, rigorous engineering and disciplined site preparation.
The plant, Kemmerer Unit 1, is being built on a former coal plant site in Kemmerer, Wyoming.
“This is the moment our industry has been working toward for a generation,” said TerraPower chief executive officer and president Chris Levesque.
“We’re not just breaking new ground on a first-of-a-kind nuclear plant in Wyoming; we’re building the next generation of America’s energy infrastructure.”
Levesque said the Natrium plant will deliver reliable and dispatchable power to the grid and Kemmerer Unit 1 will serve as a commercial blueprint to mobilise a fleet of Natrium plants across the country and around the world.
TerraPower said it is mobilising a workforce of roughly 1,600 workers to begin plant construction, bringing the first Natrium reactor and energy storage system one step closer to fruition. Once operational, it is expected to employ approximately 250 full-time staff.
The Natrium plant, a TerraPower and GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy technology, features a 345-MW sodium-cooled fast reactor with an integrated molten salt-based energy storage system.
The storage technology can boost energy output to 500 MW of power when needed, equivalent to the amount of energy needed to power around 400,000 homes. The energy storage capability is designed to keep base output steady, ensuring constant reliability, and can quickly ramp up when demand peaks. It is the only advanced reactor design with this unique feature.
This first Natrium plant is being developed through the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, a public-private partnership. When complete, the project will be the first utility-scale advanced nuclear power plant in the US and Wyoming’s first-ever commercial nuclear generating station.
The project has been under active development since TerraPower broke ground on the greenfield site in June 2024 and began construction on non-nuclear support facilities.
TerraPower said it is rapidly commercialising the Natrium technology; which includes an agreement with Meta for up to eight Natrium plants by 2035.
A rendering of a Natrium nuclear power station. Courtesy TerraPower.
