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Bill Gates moves ahead with nuclear project
Bill Gates and his energy company are starting construction at their Wyoming site for a next-generation nuclear power plant he believes will “revolutionize” how power is generated.
Gates was in the tiny community of Kemmerer Monday to break ground on the project. The co-founder of Microsoft is chairman of TerraPower. The company applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March for a construction permit for an advanced nuclear reactor that uses sodium, not water, for cooling. If approved, it would operate as a commercial nuclear power plant.
The site is adjacent to PacifiCorp’s Naughton Power Plant, which will stop burning coal in 2026 and natural gas a decade later, the utility said. Nuclear reactors operate without emitting planet-warming greenhouse gases. PacifiCorp plans to get carbon-free power from the reactor and says it is weighing how much nuclear to include in its long-range planning.
The work begun Monday is aimed at having the site ready so TerraPower can build the reactor as quickly as possible if its permit is approved. Russia is at the forefront for developing sodium-cooled reactors.
Gates told the audience at the groundbreaking that they were “standing on what will soon be the bedrock of America’s energy future.”
“This is a big step toward safe, abundant, zero-carbon energy,” Gates said. “And it’s important for the future of this country that projects like this succeed.”
Advanced reactors typically use a coolant other than water and operate at lower pressures and higher temperatures. Such technology has been around for decades, but the United States has continued to build large, conventional water-cooled reactors as commercial power plants. The Wyoming project is the first time in about four decades that a company has tried to get an advanced reactor up and running as a commercial power plant in the United States, according to the NRC.
It’s time to move to advanced nuclear technology that uses the latest computer modeling and physics for a simpler plant design that’s cheaper, even safer and more efficient, said Chris Levesque, the company’s president and chief executive officer.
TerraPower’s Natrium reactor demonstration project is a sodium-cooled fast reactor design with a molten salt energy storage system.
“The industry’s character hasn’t been to innovate. It’s kind of been to repeat past performance, you know, not to move forward with new technology. And that was good for reliability,” Levesque said in an interview. “But the electricity demands we’re seeing in the coming decades, and also to correct the cost issues with today’s nuclear and nuclear energy, we at TerraPower and our founders really felt it’s time to innovate.”
A Georgia utility just finished the first two scratch-built American reactors in a generation at a cost of nearly $35 billion. The price tag for the expansion of Plant Vogtle from two of the traditional large reactors to four includes $11 billion in cost overruns.
The TerraPower project is expected to cost up to $4 billion, half of it from the U.S. Department of Energy. Levesque said that figure includes first-of-its-kind costs for designing and licensing the reactor, so future ones would cost significantly less.
Most advanced nuclear reactors under development in the U.S. rely on a type of fuel — known as high-assay low-enriched uranium — that’s enriched to a higher percentage of the isotope uranium-235 than the fuel used by conventional reactors. TerraPower delayed its launch date in Wyoming by two years to 2030 because Russia is the only commercial supplier of the fuel, and it’s working with other companies to develop alternate supplies. The U.S. Energy Department is working on developing it domestically.
Edwin Lyman co-authored an article in Science on Thursday that raises concerns that this fuel could be used for nuclear weapons. Lyman, the director of nuclear power safety with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the risk posed by HALEU today is small because there isn’t that much of it around the world. But that will change if advanced reactor projects, which require much larger quantities, move forward, he added. Lyman said he wants to raise awareness of the danger in the hope that the international community will strengthen security around the fuel.
NRC spokesperson Scott Burnell said the agency is confident its current requirements will maintain both security and public safety of any reactors that are built and their fuel.
Gates co-founded TerraPower in 2008 as a way for the private sector to propel advanced nuclear energy forward to provide safe, abundant, carbon-free energy.
The company’s 345-megawatt reactor could generate up to 500 megawatts at its peak, enough for up to 400,000 homes. TerraPower said its first few reactors will focus on supplying electricity. But it envisions future reactors could be built near industrial plants to supply high heat.
Nearly all industrial processes requiring high heat currently get it from burning fossil fuels. Heat from advanced reactors could be used to produce hydrogen, petrochemicals, ammonia and fertilizer, said John Kotek at the Nuclear Energy Institute.
It’s significant that Gates, a technological innovator and climate champion, is betting on nuclear power to help address the climate crisis, added Kotek, the industry group’s senior vice president for policy.
“I think this has helped open people’s eyes to the role that nuclear power does play today and can play in the future in addressing carbon emissions,” he said. “There’s tremendous momentum building for new nuclear in the U.S. and the potential use of a far wider range of nuclear energy technology than we’ve seen in decades.”
Meta seeks to train AI model on European data
LONDON | Meta wants to use data from users in privacy-conscious Europe to train its artificial intelligence models, the social media giant said Monday as it faces concerns about data protection while battling to keep up with rivals like OpenAI and Google.
The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, said that in order to better reflect the “languages, geography and cultural references” of its users in Europe, it needs to use public data from those users to teach its Llama AI large language model.
Meta’s AI training efforts are hampered by stringent European Union data privacy laws, which give people control over how their personal information is used. Vienna-based group NOYB, led by activist Max Schrems, complained last week to 11 national privacy watchdogs about Meta’s AI training plans and urged them to stop the company before it starts training Llama’s next generation.
AI language models are trained on vast pools of data that help them predict the most plausible next word in a sentence, with newer versions typically smarter and more capable than their predecessors. Meta’s AI assistant feature has been baked into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for users in the U.S. and 13 other countries, but notably not Europe.
“If we don’t train our models on the public content that Europeans share on our services and others, such as public posts or comments, then models and the AI features they power won’t accurately understand important regional languages, cultures or trending topics on social media,” Stefano Fratta, global engagement director of Meta’s privacy policy, said in blog post.
“We believe that Europeans will be ill-served by AI models that are not informed by Europe’s rich cultural, social and historical contributions.”
Fratta said other companies including Google and OpenAI have already trained on European data. Meta won’t use private messages to friends and family nor content from European users who are under 18, he said.
Since May 22, the company has sent 2 billion notifications and emails to European users explaining its plans and linking to an online form to opt out, Fratta said.
The latest version of Meta’s privacy policy is set to take effect on June 26, indicating that training for the next model will start soon after.
Diesel prices jump 56% as Malaysia revamps decades-old fuel subsidies
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia | Diesel price in Malaysia jumped by more than 50% on Monday as part of a revamp of decades-old fuel subsidies to tighten government spending and save billions of ringgits annually.
The restructuring eliminates blanket energy subsidies and redirects them to the needy. They’re part of economic reforms pledged by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whose government says they’re needed to build a more sustainable economy and plug losses from smuggling cheap oil to neighboring countries.
The plan is bold but risky for Anwar, who took power in 2022, as it may anger working-class voters struggling with rising cost of living. He announced the unpopular decision to cut fuel subsidies last month to give time to lower-income groups to prepare for the transition.
“All prime ministers before this had agreed on the targeted subsidy, but there was no political will to implement it because of the risks involved. However, to save the country, we have no choice,” Anwar, who is also Finance Minister, was quoted as saying Monday by national Bernama news agency.
The government eventually plans to follow suit with gasoline subsidies. Essentials including fuel, cooking oil and rice are heavily subsidized in Malaysia which have strained national finances for years.
Second Finance Minister Amir Hamzah Azizan announced Sunday that diesel price will rise to 3.35 ringgit ($0.71) a liter on Monday, up 56% from its previous subsidized price of 2.15 ringgit ($0.46). He said the price will be reviewed on a weekly basis to be aligned with market prices.
The price hike will not apply to Malaysian states on Borneo island and eligible logistic vehicles, he said. Lower prices previously set for fishermen and a wide fleet of land public transport vehicles such as school buses, taxis and ambulances will also remain unchanged.
Monthly cash aid will also be given to eligible individuals with diesel vehicles including farmers and commodity smallholders, the government said. Officials said the hike shouldn’t lead to drastic price inflation as subsidies are still given to targeted groups.
Despite the hike, Amir said Malaysia’s diesel price remains the second lowest in Southeast Asia, after Brunei. Diesel costs 8.79 ringgit ($1.86) a liter in neighboring Singapore and more than 4 ringgit ($0.86) in most other regional countries. It is heavily subsidized at 1.09 ringgit ($0.23) in oil-rich Brunei
Amir said the targeted subsidies will help cut the fiscal deficit, with the government expected to save at least four billion ringgit ($850 million) annually. Malaysia’s diesel subsidy bill surged from 1.4 billion ringgit ($300 million) in 2019 to 14.3 billion ringgit ($3 billion) last year.
“Malaysia cannot afford to continue losing billions of ringgit due to widespread smuggling of diesel. The money is better spent on improving the people’s quality of life and developing the country,” Amir said.
—From AP reports
