Wyoming celebrates 'nuclear renaissance' as feds approve license for a new reactor

Terra Power CEO Chris Levesque joined the Bill Gates-backed firm after years working in the legacy nuclear power industry which he says was slow to innovate. Kirk Siegler/NPR hide caption toggle caption Kirk Siegler/NPR Kemmerer, WYO - The infamous Wyoming wind is whipping an American flag hoisted above the construction site of what's only the fourth nuclear reactor to be built in the U.S. this century, and one of the first in a new generation of advanced designs. "We're building an advanced nuclear plant but so many aspects of the plant and of the business are the same as the sixty-year-old coal plant that's down the road," says Chris Levesque, Terra Power's CEO, as he gestures to the west where the old Naughton plant stands. The Washington state-based Terra Power, founded by Bill Gates, says this will be the first of many, part of a new nuclear renaissance they want to bring to long time energy exporting states like Wyoming. Levesque says the company's "advanced reactor" technology makes nuclear plants safer and quicker to build. "There is an energy crisis, it's concerning," Levesque says. The recent beginning of construction here comes amid forecasts that an artificial intelligence boom means that data centers in the U.S. are going to need about 130% more energy by 2030. That's according to the International Energy Agency. To help meet that demand, Big tech companies and the federal government are partnering to invest billions of dollars in new nuclear power plants. …