TerraPower
Encyclopedia
TerraPower is a nuclear reactor design spin-off company of Intellectual Ventures
that is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington
in the United States
. TerraPower is investigating a class of nuclear fast reactors called the traveling wave reactor
(TWR). One of TerraPower's primary investors is Bill Gates
.
Whereas standard light water reactor
s such as PWR
s or BWR
s running worldwide use enriched uranium
as fuel and need fuel reloads every few years, TWRs, once started, use depleted uranium
instead and are considered to be able to operate for between 40 to 60 years without fuel reloading.
, the Fast Flux Test Facility
, Microsoft
, and various universities as well as management with experience at Siemens A.G., Areva NP
, the ITER project
, and the U.S. Department of Energy
.
as a technology for further development. The major benefits of these reactors are that they can get high fuel utilization (enhancing sustainability) in a manner that does not require reprocessing and could eventually eliminate the need to enrich uranium TWRs are designed to convert typically unusable fertile nuclides such as U-238 into fissile nuclides like Pu-239 in-situ and then shift the power from the highly-burned region to the freshly bred region. This allows the benefits of a closed fuel cycle without the expensive and proliferation-sensitive enrichment and reprocessing plants typically required to get them. All the fuel required for between 40 to 60 years of operation could be in the reactor from the beginning.
TerraPower plans to have a TWR prototype built by 2020 producing electricity for the grid in the several-hundred megawatt capacity range.
On November 6, 2009, Bill Gates and TerraPower executives visited Toshiba's Yokohama and Keihin Factories in Japan
, and
concluded a non-disclosure agreement
with them on December 1. Toshiba already developed an ultracompact reactor, the 4S
, that can operate continuously for 30 years without fuel handlings and generates 10,000 kilo-watts. Some of the technologies used in 4S are considered to be transferable to TWRs.
Intellectual Ventures
Intellectual Ventures is a private company notable for being one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents, as of 2011. Its business model has a focus on developing a large patent portfolio and licensing these patents to companies. Publicly, it states that a major goal is to assist small inventors...
that is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. TerraPower is investigating a class of nuclear fast reactors called the traveling wave reactor
Traveling wave reactor
A traveling-wave reactor, or TWR, is a type of conceptual nuclear reactor that theorists speculate can convert fertile material into fissile fuel as it runs using the process of nuclear transmutation...
(TWR). One of TerraPower's primary investors is Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
.
Whereas standard light water reactor
Light water reactor
The light water reactor is a type of thermal reactor that uses normal water as its coolant and neutron moderator. Thermal reactors are the most common type of nuclear reactor, and light water reactors are the most common type of thermal reactor...
s such as PWR
Pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactors constitute a large majority of all western nuclear power plants and are one of three types of light water reactor , the other types being boiling water reactors and supercritical water reactors...
s or BWR
Boiling water reactor
The boiling water reactor is a type of light water nuclear reactor used for the generation of electrical power. It is the second most common type of electricity-generating nuclear reactor after the pressurized water reactor , also a type of light water nuclear reactor...
s running worldwide use enriched uranium
Enriched uranium
Enriched uranium is a kind of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Natural uranium is 99.284% 238U isotope, with 235U only constituting about 0.711% of its weight...
as fuel and need fuel reloads every few years, TWRs, once started, use depleted uranium
Depleted uranium
Depleted uranium is uranium with a lower content of the fissile isotope U-235 than natural uranium . Uses of DU take advantage of its very high density of 19.1 g/cm3...
instead and are considered to be able to operate for between 40 to 60 years without fuel reloading.
Objectives
Objectives of the company include:- Exploring significant improvements to nuclear powerNuclear powerNuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...
using 21st century technologies, state-of-the-art computational capabilities, and expanded data - Evaluating the impact of new concepts on the entire fuel cycleNuclear fuel cycleThe nuclear fuel cycle, also called nuclear fuel chain, is the progression of nuclear fuel through a series of differing stages. It consists of steps in the front end, which are the preparation of the fuel, steps in the service period in which the fuel is used during reactor operation, and steps in...
, from mining to spent fuel disposal - Pursuing an independent, privately funded path
People
The TerraPower team includes scientists and engineers from Lawrence Livermore National LaboratoryLawrence Livermore National Laboratory
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , just outside Livermore, California, is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center founded by the University of California in 1952...
, the Fast Flux Test Facility
Fast Flux Test Facility
The Fast Flux Test Facility is a 400 MW nuclear test reactor owned by the U.S. Department of Energy.It is situated in the 400 Area of the Hanford Site, which is located in the state of Washington.-History:...
, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, and various universities as well as management with experience at Siemens A.G., Areva NP
Areva
AREVA is a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in the Tour Areva in Courbevoie, Paris. AREVA is mainly known for nuclear power; it also has interests in other energy projects. It was created on 3 September 2001, by the merger of Framatome , Cogema and...
, the ITER project
ITER
ITER is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project, which is currently building the world's largest and most advanced experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor at Cadarache in the south of France...
, and the U.S. Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
.
The Traveling Wave Reactor
TerraPower has chosen TWRsTraveling wave reactor
A traveling-wave reactor, or TWR, is a type of conceptual nuclear reactor that theorists speculate can convert fertile material into fissile fuel as it runs using the process of nuclear transmutation...
as a technology for further development. The major benefits of these reactors are that they can get high fuel utilization (enhancing sustainability) in a manner that does not require reprocessing and could eventually eliminate the need to enrich uranium TWRs are designed to convert typically unusable fertile nuclides such as U-238 into fissile nuclides like Pu-239 in-situ and then shift the power from the highly-burned region to the freshly bred region. This allows the benefits of a closed fuel cycle without the expensive and proliferation-sensitive enrichment and reprocessing plants typically required to get them. All the fuel required for between 40 to 60 years of operation could be in the reactor from the beginning.
TerraPower plans to have a TWR prototype built by 2020 producing electricity for the grid in the several-hundred megawatt capacity range.
International Outreach
The TWR design is still in the research and development phase. Accordingly, the TerraPower management team is meeting with a variety of U.S. and international research, supply, and manufacturing organization to discuss options for its deployment. The company has no agreements for the TWR's construction or operation at this time.On November 6, 2009, Bill Gates and TerraPower executives visited Toshiba's Yokohama and Keihin Factories in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and
concluded a non-disclosure agreement
Non-disclosure agreement
A non-disclosure agreement , also known as a confidentiality agreement , confidential disclosure agreement , proprietary information agreement , or secrecy agreement, is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties...
with them on December 1. Toshiba already developed an ultracompact reactor, the 4S
Toshiba 4S
- General description :The plant design is offered by a partnership that includes Toshiba and the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry of Japan.The technical specifications of the 4S reactor are unique in the nuclear industry...
, that can operate continuously for 30 years without fuel handlings and generates 10,000 kilo-watts. Some of the technologies used in 4S are considered to be transferable to TWRs.
External links
- TerraPower website
- Nuclear Initiative
- One of NewsweekNewsweekNewsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
s 10 Big Green Ideas in October 2010 - Bill Gates on energy: Innovating to zero! - TEDTED (conference)TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
talks on www.ted.com