Washington Business Summer 2019 | Washington Business | Page 46

doing business as
founded: 2008
location: Bellevue
employees: 150
number of partnerships with
u.s. national laboratories: Seven
TerraPower
Some of the world’s most creative and successful scientists and entrepreneurs
have gathered in Bellevue to create safer, more advanced nuclear reactor de-
signs that could provide clean energy to the world. These ambitious projects
take on big challenges: fighting climate change, bringing electricity to develop-
ing nations and powering the world economy.
Andrew Lenderman
the big picture: Some of the world’s best scientists and business leaders are
working overtime to save the planet, right here in Washington.
TerraPower is a private, for-profit company that’s working to develop the next
generation of nuclear reactors that would provide safer, more affordable nuclear
power, not just in developing nations but throughout the world. The company’s
scientists are working on two reactor technologies: the traveling wave reactor
(TWR), a sodium fast reactor, and the molten chloride fast reactor (MCFR). Both
technologies are attractive to TerraPower as they produce less waste, are more
secure and cost less than a traditional light- or heavy-water reactor. TerraPower
is currently ready to build a demonstration plant to verify and enhance the TWR
design, and company officials say advanced nuclear concepts have been developed
and related prototypes built and operated at America’s national laboratories and
in other nations.
the gates factor: TerraPower was founded in 2008 by Microsoft co-founder
Bill Gates, who remains chair of the board.
Gates realized that his efforts to improve health and prosperity globally were
undermined in areas without adequate power, explained TerraPower Senior Vice
President Marcia Burkey in an interview. That led to his exploration of energy
solutions.
“Energy access is directly correlated with quality of life,” Burkey said. “This
fundamental truth is at the core of TerraPower’s mission.”
Projections indicate that global demand for energy will grow substantially in the
coming decades, at the same moment the world will need to seriously curtail its
carbon production to address global climate change. TerraPower brought together
some of the nation’s top scientists to find a way to fuel that demand without further
damaging the environment, Burkey explained. The experts were asked to look at
every possible solution, and nuclear power emerged as a promising solution.
“Throughout history there has been no nuclear technology deployed that I know
of that hasn’t first been demonstrated by a government,” Burkey said. “We felt like
the private sector needed to take action to be the catalyst to develop advanced
nuclear answers to pressing global needs.”
the technical: The United States has a long history of nuclear leadership, and each
of the reactor technologies under development by TerraPower are based on a strong
foundation of prior research and development: the TWR has similarities to the Fast
Flux Test Facility developed here in Washington and operating sodium fast reactors
outside of the U.S., and the MCFR technology builds on prior work done at Oak Ridge
National Laboratory in the 1960s on the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment.
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