TerraPower, a nuclear power startup co-founded by Bill Gates, is preparing to announce its first data center project this year. The project, expected to break ground in 2027, would be the company’s second power plant, with its first already under construction in Wyoming. TerraPower did not disclose the customer for the data center project, though it previously announced that Meta had agreed to buy eight of its Natrium power plants. The company’s reactor is designed to complement intermittent power sources like wind and solar, addressing challenges posed by fluctuating demand in data centers.
TerraPower’s 345-megawatt molten salt-cooled reactor is engineered to work with renewable energy sources, which are inherently intermittent. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors, which struggle to ramp up and down, TerraPower’s design allows it to store excess heat in a giant vat of molten sodium. When demand spikes, the reactor can tap into this stored energy to generate additional power, enabling it to respond to fluctuations in data center loads. This approach allows the company to operate its reactors at peak capacity more frequently, reducing the financial impact of underutilization.
Nuclear reactors, including TerraPower’s, have the highest capacity factor of any power plant, generating at maximum power 92.5% of the time in the U.S. However, traditional reactors are slow to adjust output, capable of changing only about 5% of their rated power per minute. In contrast, small modular reactors (SMRs) like TerraPower’s can adjust output by about 10% per minute, though operating at reduced capacity is less profitable due to high capital expenditures. TerraPower’s design aims to balance the strengths of nuclear power with the flexibility needed to integrate with renewable energy and meet the demands of AI data centers.
Source: techcrunch
