Bill Gates and the US Energy Department to develop small nuclear power reactors that are less expensive, more efficient and ‘could power America’s energy future’
- US Energy Department announced that molten salt reactors are getting a reboot
- The new commercial technology will be less expensive and more efficient
- The agency is teaming with Bill Gates’ TerraPower and several other companies
- Testing is expected to begin in 2019 with a prototype by 2030
The Energy Department is teaming up with Bill Gates to develop small nuclear power reactors to bring to the market.
In a tweet Wednesday, the Energy Department wrote: ‘Molten salt reactors are getting a reboot,’ revealing that their new reactors are less expensive and more efficient than the current ones.
The reactors have been around since the 1960s and now nearly 60 years later, several companies – including Microsoft Founder Bill Gates’ TerraPower – are in the process of developing them as commercial ‘energy systems of the future’, according to the department.
US Energy Department announced that molten salt reactors are getting a reboot with the help of Bill Gates
The new commercial technology will be less expensive and more efficient
The US Department of Energy has already invested more than $28million for the project to test materials in the reactor.
These new technologies use liquid salts as both coolant and fuel.
The Energy Department said that this technology ‘could power America’s energy future!’.
The agency shared a diagram of the reactor and said the process is more efficient at producing electricity than light water reactors and would also produce less waste than current one.
It is also a safer technology as it has what the industry calls a ‘walk-away-safe’ design that shuts down the reactor on its own to prevent fuel damage.
‘If there is a loss of coolant flow, the fuel salt would expand through the reactor core to passively halt the process and naturally circulate to remove decay heat,’ the agency said.
The agency shared a diagram of the reactor and said the process is more efficient at producing electricity than light water reactors and would also produce less waste than current one
This is not Gate’s first time getting involved in nuclear reactors.
In 2010, Gates partnered with Toshiba to develop a next-generation nuclear reactor that could operate for up to 100 years without refueling.
Southern Company and TerraPower are currently in the early design phases. They are working with Oak Ridge, Idaho National Laboratory, Vanderbilt University and the Electric Power Research Institute.
The companies expect to begin testing a $20million test facility starting in 2019.
After testing, Southern Company and TerraPower plan to develop and license a test reactor before developing a 1,100-megawatt prototype reactor by 2030.
The agency is teaming with Bill Gates’ TerraPower and several other companies
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