TerraPower recently announced plans to build its Natrium reactor near a retiring coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming. This is an incredible opportunity for the state, which currently generates almost 90% of its electricity generation from fossil fuels. The Natrium design represents the future of advanced nuclear reactor technology and is well-suited to provide clean and efficient power to communities across the United States, including the Mountain West.
The U.S. Department of Energy is extremely excited about this project and plans to invest nearly $2 billion to support the licensing, construction and demonstration of this first-of-a-kind reactor by 2028.
Good they are experimenting, we'd get nowhere if the didn't.
That Natrium reactor will provide for many jobs for a long, long, long time.
The United States’ newest nuclear power plant has taken 43 years to build
Published May 11, 2016
This summer, if all goes according to plan, the second reactor at Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant will begin supplying power to the US electrical grid. Construction on the reactor in Spring City, Tennessee, has proceeded in fits and starts since the project began in 1973. It will be the first new nuclear reactor to come online in the US since the first Watts Bar reactor was completed 20 years ago.
The long delay in completing Watts Bar illustrates the challenges of constructing a nuclear reactor in the US. Construction on the project has been held up by public safety concerns, shifting regulatory expectations, fluctuating energy demands, and ballooning costs. The final price for Watts Bar 2 is currently projected to be $4.7 billion, a number which has been revised upward many times during construction.
![[Linked Image from eia.gov]](https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/images/2016.06.14/chart2.png)
