The state of Wyoming has been chosen as the site for a Small Modular Nuclear Reactor (SMR) to be built by Bill Gates’s TerraPower and the regional power company PacifiCorp, with aid from the US Department of Energy. The DOE granted TerraPower $80 million last October. The Natrium reactor will generate 345 MW of power with a target starting date of 2028. As a modular reactor, the size can be increased as the need arises.
Gov. Mark Gordon, in announcing the project on Wednesday, said the reactor would be built within one of four coal power plants which are scheduled for closure.
Gordon also said, however, that “I am not going to abandon any of our fossil fuel industry. It is absolutely essential to our state.”
