Shannon Anderson, staff attorney with Wyoming’s Powder River Basin Resource Council, said the TerraPower reactor is “no silver bullet solution,” and would be too little, too late to address climate change or the economic impacts of coal’s decline in Wyoming. “Many of the claims that are being made about these types of reactors are simply untrue or highly misleading,” said Edwin Lyman, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists who this year published a report on advanced nuclear technology that included a harsh critique of TerraPower’s project. And they say the potential of advanced reactors is being oversold. In the United States, where nuclear provides 20 percent of the electricity, critics say it remains a costly option with unresolved issues over long-term waste storage. restrictions were imposed in 2019 included a TerraPower proposal to build an experimental reactor south of Beijing. In China, the government is backing a program of nuclear expansion that until U.S. In Europe, Germany plans to shut down its last nuclear power plants in 2022, while France remains dependent on nuclear for most of its electricity. Gates’ advocacy has earned him praise-and pushback-amid a global debate about nuclear power’s role in the 21st century. In his virtual appearance, Gates promoted Natrium as a safer, more flexible and less-expensive reactor than those cooled by water in conventional plants. And Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has been one of America’s most high-profile proponents of nuclear power to help the nation reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Nuclear power generates electricity without the direct combustion of fossil fuels, which releases greenhouse gases. ![]() And we hope that our investment in Natrium will allow Wyoming to stay in the lead for many decades to come.” “Wyoming has been a leader in energy for over a century. “We think Natrium will be a game-changer for the energy industry,” Gates said in a June virtual appearance in Wyoming. The plant was one of four scheduled for closure that were under consideration for TerraPower’s Wyoming Advanced Nuclear Demonstration Project. TerraPower, a Bellevue-based nuclear energy company founded by Bill Gates, announced plans to build a new reactor called Natrium-cooled by liquid sodium-at the site of the Naughton coal plant. This week came big news, and fresh hope for an economic revival of Kemmerer. “This is slowly eating away at the community.” “With the power plant shutting down in five years, would you open a new restaurant or new business of any kind?” said Tom Crank, a former state legislator and civil engineer who has lived in Kemmerer since 1968. ![]() In 2025, the town faces a stark reckoning when Rocky Mountain Power’s Naughton coal plant is scheduled to close, which also will leave a more difficult future for a nearby mine. Kemmerer’s decline has come as the coal industry, despite a recent surge in demand, has suffered a long-term loss of markets to cleaner, cheaper sources of electricity. ![]() Some that remain open have “for sale” signs in the windows. In the blocks surrounding the park, many businesses have closed, leaving behind aging storefronts. Penney department store still sells clothing in this town of fewer than 3,000 people. ![]() The entrepreneur would go on to forge a nationwide retail empire. In 1902, he opened a dry-goods store here to serve workers who dug coal from a nearby mine. KEMMERER, Wyoming-In a triangle-shaped park, a bronze statue honors the legacy of J.C. Third in a series with the Seattle Times on the future of nuclear power in the United States in the era of climate change.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |