For the past 15 years, Bill Gates has been working on a project to open the most advanced nuclear facility in the world in Kemmerer, Wyoming. According to Gates, nuclear power is critical in the fight against climate change. With that in mind, he believes the world needs to “make a big bet on nuclear” and hopes to open the plant—designed by his company TerraPower, and called the Natrium plant—in 2030. With the company’s proprietary plans and methodologies, there is no doubt that in addition to being one of the largest farmland owners in the United States, Gates intends to profit off of nuclear energy as he pushes its use to combat climate change.
On November 16, 2021, a day after President Biden signed his Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal allocating nearly $2.5 billion for its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), TerraPower officially announced it had chosen Kemmerer as the location for its cutting-edge Natrium plant, which intends to replace the nearby Naughton coal plant, set to shut down in 2025. The ARDP funding from the Department of Energy (DOE), along with previous funding, will cover the DOE’s commitment to TerraPower for the first five years of a seven-year, $2 billion agreement, with TerraPower matching the investment dollar for dollar.