Bill Gates is all in on nuclear energy

Artificial intelligence might eventually take over many jobs, but before that happens, the data centers it depends on will need a massive amount of electricity.

How do we power these centers and millions of U.S. homes and businesses without increasing climate-warming gas emissions?

Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, billionaire philanthropist, and investor, believes that nuclear power is the solution to this problem. He is investing his own money to make it happen.

Gates has invested $1 billion into a nuclear power plant that just broke ground in Kemmerer, Wyoming. This new facility, designed by Gates-founded TerraPower, will be smaller than traditional fission nuclear power plants and, in theory, safer because it will use sodium instead of water to cool the reactor’s core.

TerraPower estimates the plant could be built for up to $4 billion, which is relatively inexpensive compared to other recent U.S. nuclear projects. For instance, two nuclear reactors built from scratch in Georgia cost nearly $35 billion, according to the Associated Press.

Construction on the TerraPower plant is expected to be completed by 2030.

Gates recently discussed his multibillion-dollar nuclear power investment in an interview with Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep at NPR headquarters. They also talked about the benefits and challenges of artificial intelligence, which the new plant might eventually help power.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Steve Inskeep: Let me ask about a couple of groups that you need to persuade, and one of them is long-time skeptics of the safety of nuclear power, including environmental groups and people who will put pressure on some of the political leaders you've been meeting here in Washington. Are you convinced you can make a case that will persuade them?

Bill Gates: Absolutely. The safety case for this design is incredibly strong just because of the passive mechanisms involved. People have been talking about it for 60 years; this is the way these things should work.

Steve Inskeep: Meaning if it breaks down, it just cools off.

Bill Gates: Exactly.