Wyoming approves permit for demo Natrium plant
TerraPower has received approval from the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council on its permit for the Natrium demonstration plant near a retiring coal-fired plant at Kemmerer. The permit covers all construction and operational activities on the plant that are not under the jurisdiction of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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Natrium technology features a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor using high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel, with a molten salt-based energy storage system that can boost the system's output to 500 MWe for more than five and a half hours when needed.
The Industrial Siting Council (ISC) reviews the socio-economic and environmental impacts of industrial facilities before issuing a permit for construction. Emphasis is placed upon social-economic impacts.
The permit from the Wyoming ISC - which TerraPower applied for in October 2024 - will allow for the construction of non-nuclear facilities for the first-of-a-kind plant, including the energy island portion of the Natrium plant that houses the molten-salt energy storage tanks and turbines. With this permit complete, TerraPower will continue its construction schedule, with plans to start construction on both the Kemmerer Training Centre and the energy island in 2025, as well as continue work on the sodium test and fill facility that began in 2024.
"This is the first state permit ever awarded to a commercial-scale advanced nuclear project and is a testament to the groundbreaking work of our TerraPower team," the company's President and CEO Chris Levesque said. "The regulatory process to bring new nuclear plants to fruition is robust, and our team has been working relentlessly to successfully manoeuvre through a complicated, multi-jurisdictional environment to bring the first Natrium plant to market."
TerraPower - a company largely funded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates - noted it is the first and only advanced nuclear developer with a permit application for a commercial advanced reactor submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which oversees all nuclear portions of the Natrium plant. That application was submitted in March 2024 and is on track for approval in December 2026.
"The unique Natrium design enables the company to start non-nuclear construction onsite during the NRC review," TerraPower said.
A ground-breaking ceremony held in June last year marked the start of non-nuclear construction at the Kemmerer site, and came weeks after the NRC accepted for docketing TerraPower's application for a construction permit, submitted earlier in 2024.
In its application to the ISC, TerraPower said: "Contingent upon obtaining approval from the ISC and securing all other required permits, building activities are planned to begin in March 2025 and continue for approximately 69 months. Nuclear fuel load is projected for fall of 2030 and commercial operation for the fall of 2031."
TerraPower will need to submit a separate operating licence application to obtain permission to run the reactor.
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