Gates Goes Nuclear

Bill Gates has been singing the praises of nuclear power lately—specifically the efforts of TerraPower, a project he's backing that is developing a new type of nuclear reactor. Now, a Japanese newspaper reports that TerraPower is teaming up with Toshiba, one of the big players in nuclear power, to advance its reactor plans.

That would be a big step forward for TerraPower, which has until now been a small research effort hosted at Intellectual Ventures, an invention and patent aggregator firm headed by former Microsoft chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold.

Reuters cites a report in Japan's Nikkei daily:

TerraPower, which is effectively owned by Gates, and Toshiba would focus on the Traveling-Wave Reactor (TWR), which consumes depleted uranium as fuel, Nikkei said.

TWRs will likely come in sizes ranging from 100,000 kilowatts to 1 million kilowatts, which is comparable to many of today's reactors in terms of power output, the paper said.

Laura Hermann, a spokeswoman for TerraPower, declined to comment directly on the report about Toshiba, but writes that "TerraPower has gotten a lot of interest in the TWR. The team has been sharing information on the TWR with a variety of research, supply, and manufacturing organizations."

Reuters and other media are quoting a Toshiba spokesman as saying that the company is in early stage talks with TerraPower, and nothing has been decided yet. Still, the fact that TerraPower is out talking to big players in the nuclear industry shows it is serious about moving toward commercialization.

Reuters said Gates could invest several hundred billion yen of his own wealth in TWRs. Intellectual Ventures and Gates' organization could not immediately be reached for comment.

Here's more on TerraPower's proposed reactor model, which envisions a reactor that can run for decades without the need for refueling. TerraPower has been raising its profile lately amid signs that the Obama administration is growing more open to nuclear energy.

Gates, who is deeply involved in global health work through his private foundation, has shown a growing interest in nuclear and other energy technologies that could potentially meet the power needs of the world’s poor without contributing to global warming.