Levesque envisions that TerraPower will help the United States become a dominant force in nuclear power as other countries transition their energy grids, "the United States will once again export reactors that set the standard for the world, just as we did for today's conventional reactors," Levesque says.
"We envision a 2050 grid that is powered by very significant wind and solar power, but is complemented by" Terra Power nuclear reactors, TerraPower president and CEO, Chris Levesque, tells CNBC Make It. federal government to demonstrate the viability of nuclear power through its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), TerraPower aims to build "fully functional advanced nuclear reactor within 7 years of the award," according to the Office of Nuclear Energy at the U.S. A thriving renewable energy industry will create jobs, provide cheaper electricity and help cut emissions much faster than nuclear power.But Gates was also interested in the potential of nuclear power as a clean energy.Īfter reading a paper about a new generation of nuclear reactors built with technical advancements to guard against such accidents, Gates founded TerraPower in 2008 to realize the benefits of these innovations. Instead of backing nuclear power, our government needs to invest in renewable energy including wind and solar power. As the cost of truly clean energy plummets and the price of nuclear energy spirals out of control, nuclear power companies are shelving their plans to build plants in the UK. The UK government’s hopes for a new generation of nuclear power stations is crashing against the economic realities. Some of this waste will remain dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years, yet nobody knows of a way to safely store it so problems aren’t created for future generations. Even without such accidents, nuclear power creates radioactive waste at every stage of production, including uranium mining and reprocessing of spent reactor fuel.
We’re still living with the legacy of accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima which released huge amounts of radioactive material. Climate change is already happening and we simply can’t wait that long when wind and solar power are so much quicker to install. The nuclear industry’s track record suggests it will be delayed even further. Hinkley C was supposed to be producing energy by 2017, but it now isn’t due until 2027.
A new reactor in Finland was delivered 14 years behind schedule, thanks to problems with the reactor design. Reactors are also complicated things to build. Such huge sums of money would be better invested in truly clean energy, such as wind power which produces energy more cheaply. The UK’s new Hinkley Point C reactor could cost over £25 billion by the time it’s finished, leading it to be called “the most expensive object on Earth”. It is often referred to as ‘clean’ energy because it doesn’t produce carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases when electricity is generated but the reality is that it isn’t a plausible alternative to renewable energy sources.īuilding nuclear reactors is costly, running into billions of pounds. Nuclear power is incredibly expensive, hazardous and slow to build.
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