TerraPower Gets Approval to Begin Construction of Bill Gates-Backed Next-Generation Nuclear Plant

TerraPower received regulatory approval to begin construction of its first nuclear power plant, a sodium-cooled fast reactor designed by the Bill Gates-backed company that represents the most significant advancement in commercial nuclear energy in decades. The plant, which won't be completed until at least 2030 and still needs a separate operating license, is designed to address many of the safety and waste concerns that have stalled nuclear construction in the United States for a generation. The approval arrives at a moment of extraordinary energy demand driven by AI data centers -- Trump this week got tech companies to pledge to pay for their own power generation -- and amid the Iran war's disruption of global energy markets that has pushed oil past $80 per barrel and natural gas prices to multi-year highs. The convergence of AI's insatiable energy appetite, geopolitical instability in fossil fuel markets, and a new generation of nuclear designs may finally create the conditions for the nuclear renaissance that advocates have promised for decades.