#17 The Nuclear Option

Proposed TerraPower Natrium power plant

The other day, a good friend asked if I had looked into the nuclear technology that Bill Gates is backing as a source of carbon free electricity. I said I had not — my general impression of nuclear power has been that it is too expensive and slow to deploy — but I would look into it.

Bill Gates is no dummy and he has a recent history of spending a fair amount of his Microsoft fortune on important causes. Gates’ nuclear power company is called TerraPower, and they are ready to start building their first unit in Wyoming. TerraPower will provide half of the $4 billion cost for this first demonstration plant, with the US Government providing the other half. Berkshire Hathaway Energy will operate the plant through a subsidiary, Rocky Mountain Power. The plant will produce 350 megawatts of power with capabilities for a 5 hour peak boost to 500 megawatts. They hope to have the plant operational by 2028.

The TerraPower plants will use a new reactor design, called Natrium, with significant safety improvements over existing nuclear plants. The new plants are smaller, can be built more quickly, and should be less expensive than conventional plants — TerraPower hopes to get the cost down to $1 billion eventually. Interestingly, Rocky Mountain Power has already installed more than 2000 megawatts of wind power in Wyoming, and says it plans to build several times that amount more.

As the climate emergency deepens, we may wish we had leaned more heavily on nuclear power. While perhaps not “green” by some standards, it has produced a lot of carbon free electricity over the years. Compared with the hundreds of thousands of deaths attributable to fossil fuels, it has proven to be one of the safest energy sources. But, in my opinion, nuclear power is not the best way out of our current dilemma, for these reasons:

1. It’s too expensive. The types of nuclear plants we have grown up with are much more expensive than current sustainable alternatives. Even if Mr. Gates Natrium plants can be brought down to $1 billion each (given the history of this kind of technology, this may be optimistic) their power still couldn’t compete.

2. It’s can’t be installed quickly enough. Even if all the technological and permitting hurdles are overcome and the first Natrium plant comes alive in 2028, it will likely be at least 15 years before there can be enough installed nuclear power to make a substantial difference. Natrium is a fast breeder technology that requires a more highly enriched uranium fuel — at present there is no facility capable of enriching to this level in the US.

3. It claims to be the best way to solve the intermittency issues of wind and solar. In fact, there are several other ways to deal with this problem, some of which can be more quickly deployed. See #5 The Intermittency Myth

4. Controversy is likely to cause delays. Americans have a deep seated fear of nuclear technology, in spite of its excellent safety record. Lengthy battles over the permitting and siting of nuclear plants have been the norm. We still have not dealt properly with the waste from any of our existing plants. Are these problems likely to disappear for the new Natrium plants?

It’s not surprising that Mr. Gates would approach our energy dilemma from the point of view of a captain of industry. But I believe that our interests are better served by a less centralized and capitol intensive approach. Relatively small companies can build wind and solar farms. Many individuals have the ability to become essentially energy independent using simple, cost effective and already existing technologies. We are quickly learning the cost of being dependent on energy that is controlled by huge corporations and oligarchs who have shown little concern for the planet or the vast majority of people on it.

I believe that Mr. Gates’ nuclear demonstration project should go forward — it may turn out to be a viable and necessary component in our energy future if new battery technologies run into a roadblock. But as discussed in #6 Old Sol, a vast amount of energy from the sun falls on the earth every day. Emerging industries have given us the ability to harvest and manage that energy. They are already in production in factories around the world. The promise of safer nuclear power sounds to me like another stalling tactic by those who value the status quo over the future of our children. Time is of the essence.

For more info on the TerraPower plans: CNBC

Thanks for reading,

Doug Hylan, Brooklin, Maine

Atmospheric CO2 level, Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, 5/1/22 — 419.98 ppm.