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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its first commercial nuclear reactor construction permit<\/a> in nearly 10 years Wednesday to a subsidiary of Bill Gates\u2019 TerraPower for a 345-MW plant planned near the site of a retiring coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1 will be the first utility-scale advanced nuclear power plant in the U.S., TerraPower said in a release<\/a>,\u00a0and will <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>supply power to PacifiCorp\u2019s grid<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, with completion anticipated in 2030.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The NRC said that after a streamlined mandatory hearing process, it authorized its Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation to issue the permit, \u201chaving found the staff\u2019s review of the Kemmerer application adequate to make the necessary regulatory safety and environmental findings. The staff expects to issue the permit soon.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1 is being developed through the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, TerraPower said. It uses a design called Natrium, a \u201csodium-cooled fast reactor with a patented molten salt-based energy storage system,\u201d which TerraPower co-developed with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The storage element can boost the system’s output to 500 MW of power when needed \u201cto keep base output steady, ensuring constant reliability, and can quickly ramp up when demand peaks,\u201d said TerraPower.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n TerraPower and Meta announced a deal last month<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a> that Meta would help fund the development of and receive power from two new Natrium units with 690 MW of capacity, with delivery as early as 2032. Meta also secured rights to energy from up to six other Natrium units totaling 2.1 GW in capacity with delivery targeted for 2035.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The NRC issued its <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>safety evaluation for TerraPower\u2019s permit in December<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, finding that the preliminary design and analysis of Kemmerer Power Station Unit 1 was \u201cconsistent with guidance and is sufficient and meets the applicable regulatory requirements\u201d for the issuance of a permit, though staff noted \u201csome remaining areas of uncertainty in the KU1 design and analysis.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n That uncertainty is acceptable under the NRC\u2019s regulations, the report said, \u201cwhich state that the expected design and analysis is preliminary and that outstanding safety questions may be resolved through [research and development] efforts.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe staff also notes that \u2026 [a permit] does not constitute Commission approval of any design feature unless specifically requested and incorporated into the permit; no such approval was requested in the application,\u201d the NRC wrote, adding that this information can be left for later consideration in the Final Safety Analysis Report.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n