Since the 11 March disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daichi nuclear power complex, when an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale was followed by a tsunami that destroyed the facility, the nuclear industry worldwide has been fighting back, arguing that new, improved reactor designs mean that nuclear power is still a valid option.
Surging economic incipient superpowers India and China remain committed to generating electricity with the atom as one of their best options to provide power to their populations’ surging demand.
And now Bill Gates is getting into the act in China, promoting a newer and reportedly safer reactor design, telling an audience at China's Ministry of Science and Technology about a project supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, “The idea is to be very low cost, very safe and generate very little waste. All these new designs are going to be incredibly safe,” Gates insisted, adding that “they require no human action to remain safe at all times.” In a bow to his hosts Gates added, "China has a lot to contribute because it's solved many of the problems of poverty, not all of them but a lot of them, itself, and many Asian, south Asian and African countries are well behind, whether it's agriculture or health."
So, what’s Microsoft’s aging wonder boy promoting?
A “traveling wave reactor” (TWR) developed by Terrapower, a company he founded.
TerraPower says that its TWR reactor design could run for decades on depleted uranium and produce significantly smaller amounts of nuclear waste than conventional reactors.
Beijing is on board. State-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) official Sun Qin was quoted in the Chinese media last week saying Gates was working with it on the reactor development, with Gates noting, "TerraPower is having very good discussions with CNNC and various people in the Chinese government."
TWRs are still in the design stage and yet to become actual products, but the designs’ appeal is their low-maintenance nature. TWR nuclear boosters aver that once started they would be powered by self-sustaining nuclear reactions and according to TWR proponents, the facilities could operate for four to six decades without requiring any refueling or removal of spent fuel rods.
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