Kemmerer, Wyo. — The Wyoming wind whips an American flag above the construction site of what will be only the fourth nuclear reactor built in the U.S. this century and one of the first of 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, gesturing toward the old Naughton coal plant. Washington state–based Terra Power, founded by Bill Gates, says the Kemmerer plant will be the first of many as part of what the company calls a nuclear renaissance. Levesque says the company’s advanced-reactor technology makes plants safer and quicker to build.
“There is an energy crisis, it’s concerning,” Levesque adds. The start of construction coincides with forecasts — including an International Energy Agency estimate — that artificial intelligence growth will push data center energy demand in the U.S. roughly 130% higher by 2030. In response, big tech and the federal government are investing billions in new nuclear capacity. Terra Power has agreements with Meta for several reactors to power the company’s data centers.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave Terra Power final approval to begin construction in March, capping five years of studies and safety demonstrations and a siting decision that chose Kemmerer over other Western towns. Levesque says community attitudes have shifted: “The old story on nuclear was more of a ‘not in my backyard’ thing.” Terra Power’s design will place much of the plant underground and use liquid sodium metal instead of water to cool the reactor. If all goes to plan and the plant is online by 2031, Terra Power says it will produce enough electricity to power almost half a million homes, likely serving a utility in the Salt Lake City area.
The project grew from a Department of Energy pilot program that began during the Trump administration; the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Law covered about half the construction costs — roughly $2 billion. The company noted support from Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and the state’s congressional delegation. Wyoming, long a major coal producer, is courting nuclear plants and new uranium mines; neighboring Idaho and Utah are also pursuing roles in the emerging industry. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has promoted his state’s application to be a DOE nuclear hub — a “nuclear life cycle innovation campus” that could enrich fuel, recycle it and store waste, potentially including waste from Kemmerer.
“This should not be controversial,” Cox said, noting nuclear already supplies about a fifth of U.S. electricity. “If you are serious about energy abundance, you have to be serious about nuclear energy.”
But nuclear remains controversial, especially in the West where abandoned uranium mines and radioactive waste have long affected tribal lands and downwind communities. Lexi Tuddenham, executive director of Healthy Environment Alliance Utah (HEAL), worries the region has been treated as a “sacrifice zone” and is skeptical of nuclear’s new branding as green. She points to Utah’s proposed nuclear hub near the shrinking Great Salt Lake and asks how taxpayers and ratepayers will continue to shoulder costs for future reactors. Terra Power says, like conventional reactors, its Wyoming plant will store spent fuel on site until a federal permanent repository is approved, and that advanced technology produces less waste than legacy plants.
For Kemmerer — a town of about 3,000 in the country’s top coal-producing state — the project represents economic relief and hope. When West Coast utilities moved away from coal, Kemmerer faced plant closures and lost mining jobs. “That’s what we were concerned about is no longer being an exporter of power, ’cause that’s a majority of our jobs,” says Brian Muir, city administrator. The new construction is creating hundreds of skilled jobs, and parts of the old coal plant will be converted to natural gas, preserving about 100 existing jobs. “I’ll just say, when Bill Gates came here, he talked about our high energy IQ,” Muir says. “We know about all forms of energy and the benefits and the costs and the risks and the footprints and all of that, we understand that.” Kemmerer officials are already lobbying Terra Power to build a second plant.