Tiny city of just 2,000 residents are fearful as Bill Gates-backed nuclear plant dubbed 'Cowboy Chernobyl' is built on their doorstep | Retrui News | Retrui
Tiny city of just 2,000 residents are fearful as Bill Gates-backed nuclear plant dubbed 'Cowboy Chernobyl' is built on their doorstep
SOURCE:Daily Mail
Kemmerer, Wyoming, could be home to a new kind of nuclear power plant by 2030. While government officials are across-the-board supportive, residents are much more hesitant.
A company Bill Gates founded is on the cusp of building Wyoming's first nuclear power plant, leaving residents fearful about worst-case scenarios and suspicious about the motives of the people behind the project.
Back in June 2024, TerraPower began building the non-nuclear portion of its 44-acre site in Kemmerer, a town with about 2,000 residents.
TerraPower, founded by Gates in 2006, wants to build the western hemisphere's first Natrium nuclear power plant, which uses liquid sodium instead of water to cool the reactors and prevent them from overheating.
Just last month, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed its final safety evaluation, saying there were no safety issues that would preclude the agency from issuing a construction permit to allow the reactors to be built.
The five-member commission now has to vote on whether to officially grant the permit, which won't happen until January 26 at the earliest.
TerraPower claims its 345-megawatt (MW) sodium-cooled fast reactor, which it aims to have operational by 2030, will be able to produce 500 MW during hours of peak electricity demand.
Based on average electricity consumption figures from the EPA, the plant could be capable of powering more than 400,000 homes, nearly double the number of households in Wyoming.
But lofty promises like these have done nothing to sway some residents, who are innately afraid of nuclear power.
'Why are they putting it in the least populated state, where we have plenty of energy for power plants other than nuclear?' Patrick Lawien of Casper, a Wyoming city about 290 miles away from the plant in Kemmerer, told the Daily Mail.
The construction site for the forthcoming TerraPower nuclear plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming, a town of around 2,000 people
Bill Gates founded TerraPower in 2006 and has been the chairman of the board ever since
'We're probably two hours away from that place when it comes to how long it takes the wind to get here. Obviously, if anything goes wrong, it's headed straight for us,' Lawien added.
He continued: 'It sounds like maybe it's a safer bet to put it in the least populated state, maybe because they'll get less backlash, less people fighting it, but also because if something does go wrong, it's not in a highly populated place.'
TerraPower has said it selected Wyoming because it is in the midst of transitioning away from its heavy reliance on fossil fuels, coal specifically.
In fact, the nuclear energy site is being built near the Naughton coal-fired plant, which has been operational since 1963 and ceased coal production at the end of 2025. It is now in the process of switching to natural gas.
Another factor in TerraPower settling in Wyoming has been the strong reception from local and state leaders.
Governor Mark Gordon, a Republican, said in June 2024 that this 'first-of-its-kind' project 'demonstrates how good things can happen when the private and public sectors work together to solve problems.'
On the national level, Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, has expressed support for the project largely because of the 1,600 temporary construction jobs and 250 permanent, long-term jobs it is expected to bring to the state.
'The Kemmerer Power Station will bring quality employment opportunities to our area and establish Wyoming as the leader in next-generation nuclear power,' Lummis said in a statement to the Daily Mail. 'This facility will provide the reliable baseload energy our nation needs while creating both good paying temporary and lasting jobs for local workers. It's a win-win for Wyoming.'
Senator Cynthia Lummis has long been in support of nuclear energy and likewise supports the TerraPower plant in Kemmerer
A rendering of the 44-acre nuclear power plant. On the left are the energy-generating facilities and on the right are the nuclear facilities. TerraPower has been criticized for not putting a concrete dome or another more traditional containment method around the nuclear reactors
Wyoming's other senator, John Barrasso, also a Republican, has also expressed support for nuclear power, though he has not commented on the Kemmerer plant. Barrasso did not return a request for comment.
The scientific community is decidedly more split on TerraPower's nuclear gambit.
The NRC, which employs hundreds of nuclear engineers, has blessed the project as 'a big step toward deploying innovative reactor designs.'
The Union of Concerned Scientists (USC), a nonprofit science advocacy group, has not been convinced. In a statement on December 2, the day after TerraPower passed the NRC's final safety review, the organization pointed out multiple potential flaws with the plant's design.
For instance, TerraPower does not plan to build a thick concrete dome around its reactors in case of a catastrophic meltdown, USC said.
The NRC has not given the nod to TerraPower's 'functional containment' method, an alternative that eschews the traditional containment structure used by all American nuclear plants in favor of a complex system of barriers built within the components of the reactors.
But the NRC has expressed 'an openness' to this concept, according to a September 2018 memo.
'The potential for rapid power excursions and the lack of a real containment make the Kemmerer plant a true "Cowboy Chernobyl,"' said Dr Edwin Lyman, USC's director of nuclear power safety.
'Even if the NRC determines later that the functional containment is inadequate, it would be utterly impractical to retrofit the design and build a physical containment after construction has begun.'
TerraPower aims to have the nuclear plant built by 2030, assuming it receives all necessary permits
Though it's expected TerraPower will receive the construction permit, it still needs to get an operation license from the NRC before it can lawfully run the nuclear plant
Lyman also criticized the liquid sodium cooling system TerraPower has touted as the future of nuclear reactors.
'Its liquid sodium coolant can catch fire, and the reactor has inherent instabilities that could lead to a rapid and uncontrolled increase in power, causing damage to the reactor’s hot and highly radioactive nuclear fuel,' he said.
TerraPower has countered that the reactors will operate at a temperature of 350 degrees Celsius, far below the boiling point of sodium.
Also a concern for many is how the review process for TerraPower's nuclear plant was completed nine months ahead of schedule.
This was made possible by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in May 2025 that explicitly set an 18-month deadline for new reactor reviews.
Originally, TerraPower expected to have its construction permit by August 2026, but preliminary approval was granted on December 1, about 20 months after it applied for the permit. According to the Trump order, the NRC was slightly late.
Though it's expected TerraPower will receive the construction permit, it still needs to get an operation license from the NRC before it can lawfully run the nuclear plant.
'I don't think there are, at least from our perspective, many communities that are out there raising their hands saying, "Yes. We want a nuclear project in our community with an expedited safety and environmental review,"' John Burrows, Wyoming Outdoor Council’s energy and climate policy director, said over the summer.
'It's just not something that any community wants to see, especially for a pilot or demonstration project.'
TerraPower executives, including founder and chair Bill Gates, symbolically break ground on the nuclear plant site in June 2024
Gates's role in the project has unnerved some in Wyoming. Pictured: Gates addresses a crowd at the site
That's a view shared by Steve Helling, who has called Wyoming home for decades of his life. Helling, 72, now lives in Casper and believes his fellow citizens have been duped.
'Wyoming is being used as a guinea pig for this nuclear experiment,' he told the Daily Mail. 'Wyoming has everything I could want, beauty, clean air, clean water, wildlife, abundant natural resources. And I wonder, why would the people of Wyoming risk it all for an experimental nuclear power plant?'
Helling said he was particularly concerned about how much it will cost at the end of the TerraPower plant's lifespan (80 years or more) to dispose of the nuclear waste it accumulates.
Germany, which decommissioned its once significant fleet of nuclear reactors, spent $1.28 billion in last year's budget to dispose of radioactive material. Over the coming years, that price tag could rise into the tens of billions.
Decades down the road, Helling does not want the US to be in the same position, especially when the nation still does not have a permanent storage solution for nuclear waste.
Several states, including California and Connecticut, have moratoriums on the construction of new nuclear plants until the federal government identifies a feasible way to safely store or dispose of nuclear waste.
Helling said the people of Wyoming 'have been hoodwinked' by Gates, TerraPower and their government officials.
'Of course, Bill Gates was a big part of this. He actually came to Wyoming in support of this experimental plant,' Helling said. 'And I wondered to myself, with regard to Mr. Gates, how much money is enough?'