Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Power United States

Bill Gates' TerraPower Signs Agreement For Nuclear To Power Data Centers 34

Posted by BeauHD from the supply-and-demand dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: TerraPower, a nuclear energy startup founded by Bill Gates, struck a deal this week with one of the largest data center developers in the US to deploy advanced nuclear reactors. TerraPower and Sabey Data Centers (SDC) are working together on a plan to run existing and future facilities on nuclear energy from small reactors. A memorandum of understanding signed by the two companies establishes a "strategic collaboration" that'll initially look into the potential for new nuclear power plants in Texas and the Rocky Mountain region that would power SDC's data centers. [...]

There's still a long road ahead before that can become a reality. The technology TerraPower and similar nuclear energy startups are developing still have to make it through regulatory hurdles and prove that they can be commercially viable. Compared to older, larger nuclear power plants, the next generation of reactors are supposed to be smaller and easier to site. Nuclear energy is seen as an alternative to fossil fuels that are causing climate change. But it still faces opposition from some advocates concerned about the impact of uranium mining and storing radioactive waste near communities. TerraPower's reactor design for this collaboration, Natrium, is the only advanced technology of its kind with a construction permit application for a commercial reactor pending with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, according to the company. The company just broke ground on a demonstration project in Wyoming last year, and expects it to come online in 2030.

Bill Gates' TerraPower Signs Agreement For Nuclear To Power Data Centers More | Reply

Bill Gates' TerraPower Signs Agreement For Nuclear To Power Data Centers

Comments Filter:

  • Not "an agreement" (Score:3)

    by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 ) on Thursday January 23, 2025 @10:55PM (#65114159)

    A "memorandum of understanding" is not an agreement, it is a statement of future intentions, that carries no financial or other obligations to do anything more than talk about concepts of plans.

    It can be ignored or rescinded at will with no consequences by either party.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      They are hedging their bets, waiting to see if Trump can sabotage renewables or not.

      • Of course he will. And not only the renewables. The stupid grifter who would readily destroy a trillion of value to pocket a mere million should not have had access to a position of power that gives him the power to do so. But the eggs were too expensive.

    • A "memorandum of understanding" is not an agreement, it is a statement of future intentions, that carries no financial or other obligations to do anything more than talk about concepts of plans.

      It can be ignored or rescinded at will with no consequences by either party.

      In short, it's the sci-fi of the business world. Fun for C Suites to talk about around the coffee table or water cooler, holds no actual weight in reality.

  • The Natrium reactor from TerraPower uses sodium for coolant and a molten salt for thermal energy storage and for transfer of that heat to boilers or turbines. Sodium is known for being a very reactive element, and salts can be potent oxidizers. Both of these materials will be in close proximity in a heat exchanger. If a leak develops then there could be a fire. Because the salt is the oxidizer the typical measures to prevent a sodium fire will not work, such as filling the containment structure with an

    • The Natrium reactor from TerraPower uses sodium for coolant and a molten salt for thermal energy storage and for transfer of that heat to boilers or turbines. Sodium is known for being a very reactive element, and salts can be potent oxidizers.

      Technically nitrates and chlorates are salts, so I suppose you can say that some salts are oxidizers, but in general, no, salts are not oxidizers, and the salts used for thermal storage most assuredly are not.

      • Technically nitrates and chlorates are salts, so I suppose you can say that some salts are oxidizers, but in general, no, salts are not oxidizers, and the salts used for thermal storage most assuredly are not.

        https://www.powermag.com/kemme... [powermag.com]

        Kemmerer 1 will be a hybrid nuclear facility integrating an 840 MWth pool-type Natrium SFR reactor with a nitrate molten salt-based energy storage system.

        That's from June 2024 so maybe TerraPower changed their minds since on the salts they intend to use. If I'm reading that right that's what TerraPower submitted to the NRC as their design for a construction permit.

        • with a nitrate molten salt-based energy storage system.

          I'd love to hear the reason for using nitrates rather than good ole' NaCl.

          Because that seems kinda nuts to me.

          • What "nitrates", isn't theirs a molten-sodium reactor?

            • What "nitrates", isn't theirs a molten-sodium reactor?

              Yes, that's also nuts, but there are reasons for it.

              Liquid sodium has high heat conductivity, low viscosity, low vapor pressure, and low neutron cross-section.

              Other than being caustic and flammable, it has many desirable properties.

              A sodium reactor can run about 200C hotter than a PWR, which makes it more efficient.

              • I just misread the post to mean the coolant in the first and the second loop is molten salt.

                Apparently, the first and the second loops are molten sodium and the third is molten sodium? nitrate to decouple the steam and electricity generation from the reactors.

                I wasn't aware of that part of the design, it isn't very typical for the designs I'm familiar with. I guess it is one way to deal with it, especially if you must do it without cooperation from the rest of the power system.

        • Interesting!

          The molten-salt thermal storage systems I'm familiar with all use alkali chlorides or flourides. Not sure why they'd switch to nitrates, but looking at the literature, you're right, nitrates are also used.
            https://www.sciencedirect.com/... [sciencedirect.com]

    • I have no idea what type of reactor they're using, and there are huge gaps in my knowledge of nuclear physics besides.

      But it does seem this latest push for micro-reactors is ass-backwards in a fundamental way that technology can't fix. From a safety perspective, you would want the most failsafe reactors possible, in the stablest possible geographical location, even if that's far away from population centers - which it typically is. For these tiny reactors the goal seems to be building them to a price, and p

      • "I have no idea what type of reactor they're using, and there are huge gaps in my knowledge of nuclear physics besides."

        And yet there you go blathering on anyway.

    • With their Monju reactor.
      The only thing that they didn't have was venture capital investments.
      Maybe that will make it work.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • Apparently US industry has never built a nuclear plant approved by the NRC, because NCR hasnt approved anything since 1975.

    Hopefully Trump will kill or at least reform United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) so it no longer blocks new deployments.

  • From TFA:
    "There's still a long road ahead before that can become a reality. The technology TerraPower and similar nuclear energy startups are developing still have to make it through regulatory hurdles and prove that they can be commercially viable."

    Well, the Math the Germans did didn't work out. Maybe yours is different, but I doubt it.

    Nuclear Fission isn't cost effective. Sad but true. Focus on renewables and storage, that will give you way more bang for buck. And efficiency.

Slashdot Top Deals

The cost of living is going up, and the chance of living is going down.

Close