TerraPower

TerraPower is an American <a href="/facts/Nuclear_reactor/8xqjIbge">nuclear reactor</a> design and development engineering company headquartered in <a href="/facts/Bellevue%2c_Washington/dQ2gFE7B">Bellevue, Washington</a>.
TerraPower is developing a class of nuclear <a href="/facts/Fast_reactor/g5kt2e6R">fast reactors</a> termed <a href="/facts/Traveling_wave_reactor/cqwSQVWx">traveling wave reactors</a> - TWR.
<a href="/facts/Traveling_wave_reactor/cqwSQVWx">TWR</a> places a small core of the enriched fuel in the center of a much larger mass of non-<a href="/facts/Fissile/XJR9qoxW">fissile</a> material, in this case <a href="/facts/Depleted_uranium/oKGvpUlW">depleted uranium</a>. Neutrons from the fission in the core "<a href="/facts/Breeder_reactor/jt0VeXUa">breeds</a>" new fissile material in the surrounding mass, producing <a href="/facts/Plutonium-239/eRobTXos">Plutonium-239</a>.
Over time, enough fuel is bred in the area surrounding the core that it can undergo fission, enabling a steady-state reactor composition to be approximated by moving outer fuel rods towards the core as original core fuel rods are moved to the periphery.
In September 2015 TerraPower signed an agreement with state-owned <a href="/facts/China_National_Nuclear_Corporation/ourqbTNe">China National Nuclear Corporation</a> to build a prototype 600 <a href="/facts/MWe/VK8oqRrm">MWe</a> reactor unit at <a href="/facts/Xiapu/mxgQvNjb">Xiapu</a> in <a href="/facts/Fujian_province/Knjv0XCG">Fujian province</a>, <a href="/facts/China/lTjIXY5p">China</a>, from 2018 to 2025. Commercial power plants, generating about 1150 MWe, were planned for the late 2020s. However, in January 2019 it was announced that the project had been abandoned due to technology transfer limitations placed by the <a href="/facts/First_presidency_of_Donald_Trump/7Dlz31my">Trump administration</a>.
In October 2020, the company was chosen by the <a href="/facts/United_States_Department_of_Energy/PRp6Cz8g">United States Department of Energy</a> as a recipient of a matching grant totaling between $400 million and $4 billion over the ensuing 5 to 7 years to build a demonstration reactor using their "<a href="/facts/Natrium_reactor/PAebc04y">Natrium</a>" design. Natrium uses liquid sodium as a coolant, reducing the cost of using an ambient pressure primary loop. It then transfers that heat to molten salt, which can be stored in tanks and used to generate steam on demand, enabling the reactor to run continuously at constant power, while allowing <a href="/facts/Dispatchable_generation/CkT25V8c">dispatchable</a> electricity generation.

TerraPower open-in-new

TerraPower