Bill Gates to build next-generation nuclear facility in Wyoming

The plant will be built on a retired coal-fired power plant, as the US government calls for carbon emissions cuts.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates will build a next-generation nuclear plant at a soon-to-be-retired coal-fired power plant in Wyoming in the next several years, business and government officials have said. The plant will feature a sodium reactor and molten salt energy storage system and will perform better, be safer and cost less than traditional nuclear power, Gates said. Bellevue-based TerraPower, of which Gates is chairman of the board, and the PacifiCorp company, which is owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway is working with Rocky Mountain Power, an electric utility serving Wyoming and other Western states, to put the Natrium reactor at one of four of the utility’s power plants in Wyoming, with the location to be decided later this year.