Bill Gates and Warren Buffett Team Up to Transform Nuclear Power

Oil Price ^ | 06/27/2024 | Haley Zaremba

[SeekAndFind]

• Bill Gates is pledging billions to promote next-generation nuclear power through TerraPower, focusing on innovations that could make nuclear a key player in global decarbonization.
• Increasing energy demands from the AI sector prompt tech leaders like Sam Altman and Bill Gates to advocate for nuclear power as a sustainable solution.
• Innovations in nuclear technology, including smaller, more standardized reactors, aim to reduce construction costs and compete with natural gas.

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Bill Gates is ready to sink billions into getting next-generation nuclear energy off the ground in the United States. The world’s sixth richest man has been a staunch nuclear supporter for years now, and has already sunk over a billion dollars of his own money into his innovative nuclear power start-up TerraPower LLC. But according to Gates, that cool billion is just the beginning. “I put in over a billion, and I’ll put in billions more,” Gates was recently quoted by Bloomberg.

Nuclear power has been gaining traction around the globe as a viable option for national and private decarbonization strategies. Nuclear advocates argue that we can no longer afford to ignore nuclear’s immense clean energy potential, as it is a proven technology with plenty of existing infrastructure, legal precedent and huge output capacity. While it is not considered to be a renewable energy, nuclear energy emits zero carbon emissions and could be a key part of a viable pathway to meeting global emissions targets.

Finding new ways to drum up a whole lot of clean energy output in a hurry has become increasingly urgent as the tech sector, and Artificial Intelligence in particular, suck up rapidly increasingly colossal amounts of energy.

[SeekAndFind]

In fact, the increased demand from the tech sector has become so extreme that, for the first time in years, energy demand growth from the developed world has surpassed that of developing countries, flipping a long-running script on its head.

[bigbob]

That would be good. Small Modular Reactors (SMR) can become the primary source of generation in a decade if we had a “man on the moon” type national priority program.

[AZJeep]

Finally, I can agree with Bill Gates!

[Dat]

I haven’t heard much about Warren Buffet for years. Is he still a Democrat?

[broken_clock]

Yeah no kidding, what’s the catch? If France can do it why can’t we?

[laplata]

Finally, I can agree with Bill Gates!

><><

Me, too on this, but Gates and his cronies always have ulterior motives which are not good.

[The Duke]

This would be something I would invest in.

[LastDayz]

Thorium reactors maybe or is that too 1960’s?

[HIDEK6]

I thought Gates was a tree hugger.

[Zathras]

Someone who knows nothing about technology teamed up with someone who bought an operating system and put his name on it.
What could go wrong?
“Hey we can probably reuse the Blue Screen of Death!”

[EQAndyBuzz]

I’m guessing at some point Martin Sheen will be rolled out long enough to say nuclear power bad.

[norwaypinesavage]

Great plan, except that they are at least three decades late. This simply goes to prove the point that some billionaires get rich because they were smart businessmen, and some get rich because they were lucky. Gates and Buffett are clearly the latter.

[PGalt]

Any individual who discontinues Bill Gates will be a hero to civilization. How much death can one person cause?

[Bookshelf]

A general discussion on small reactors has been going on now for twenty years at least. Small thorium reactors was once the touchstone, now I’m not sure what invention leads the way.

[PIF]

Me, too on this, but Gates and his cronies always have ulterior motives which are not good.

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If he did before, then he does now. Spots do not change.

[conservativeimage]

Standard policy: keep omnicidal depopulationists away from nukes.

[JeanLM]

“This would be something I would invest in.”
Go ahead (SMR). I did. Also Fuel Cell Energy (FECL). They go together. Efficient co-generation and hydrogen too.

[The Duke]

Thank you! :)

[Wuli]

“That would be good. Small Modular Reactors (SMR) can become the primary source of generation in a decade if we had a “man on the moon” type national priority program.”

It needs to be faster than that. It needs to be more like a Manhattan project combined with manufacturing on the scale of WWII for the military.

[103198]

The Terrapower Natrium is fast neutron spectrum sodium cooled reactor. It breeds and burns plutonium and should yield high fuel burnup. I haven't completed reading the Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR) at https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2408/ML24088A065.pdf. It is a very interesting design. Mass production of these plants could yield interesting economics. I haven't read the referenced article yet, but they broke ground June 10th in Wyoming for the “secondary” plant and awaiting NRC approval.