Is the future of nuclear power in the wilds of Wyoming?
By
David Wojick
|
August 5th, 2024
It is early days, but the nuclear future looms large for Wyoming and the world. To nuke or not to nuke; that is the question.
Many of my readers will have heard of Small Modular Reactors (SMR), which are the hoped-for future of nuclear power. The very first U.S. application for an SMR has been filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and it is in western Wyoming, about as far away from everybody as you can get and still be in America.
It is called the Natrium Plant near Kemmerer, Wyoming. By a wonderful coincidence, Kemmerer is named after a Pennsylvania coal baron and 70 years ago, was the world’s biggest open-pit coal mine. Maybe they can do for nuclear what they did for coal.
At 345 MW, the proposed plant is a normal SMR. Unfortunately, they have thrown in storage capacity which makes it complicated. In fact, there seems to be an important bit of confusion here. The applicant is Terrapower, and they say the nuke plus storage runs 500 MW. But NRC says it is an 850 MW project.
https://www.cfact.org/2024/08/05/is-the-future-of-nuclear-power-in-the-wilds-of-wyoming/
