Microsoft founder Bill Gates once had the grandiose idea of building his own nuclear power plants. However, Gates' construction plan differs from conventional power plants.
Bill Gates is mainly known for his billions, most of which are in Microsoft shares. But what does the multi-billionaire do with it? The Microsoft founder puts his money into many different projects, such as polio eradication, fresh water all over the world with the help of toilets, and also for his investments in startup companies. TerraPower is one of them. This company deals with nuclear innovations. Bill Gates became aware of it and invested in it.
Many people are against nuclear energy, because it is dangerous, as Chernobyl has already shown. But Gates' reactor and conventional reactors are different. This is because the reactor being developed by TerraPower intends to use the fuel rods already in use as a source of energy. A concept was developed that would work in theory, but has hardly been implemented in practice.
Setbacks
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake occurred off the coast of Japan. A tsunami accordingly approached the coast and flooded the country. Fukushima was one of the regions that was flooded, but it got much worse. The coolant in the reactor was dissolved in water, which caused the reactor to explode. This is because the coolant must be able to withstand temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius. As this was no longer available in full, the temperatures were extremely high, so that the fuel rods were so hot that they melted away everything in their vicinity.
Bill Gates said that it would be good for China to build a reactor for about four billion US dollars, so that the risk would not be in the USA if something did go wrong. Of course, the whole project was a political act between China and the USA. So both sides had to give their consent to build the reactor. However, at that time Donald Trump was the president of the U.S. and his administration rejected the project, which was surprising because China agreed to it. Not even Gates expected that his own country would not support his project.
Prospects
Currently, Gates is still pursuing his dream of a nuclear power plant. His company recently announced that they will build a research center with 100 workers in Washington state to further develop the nuclear power plant and also research medical applications with nuclear technology. It was also announced that the nuclear power plant will no longer be built in China, but in the USA, in Wyoming and it is also a part of Joe Biden's Billion program.
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