USA Today:  “Billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have chosen a remote town in Wyoming to build a new small nuclear power plant intended to help replace the coal-fired plants dotting the state.  Pending federal and local approval, TerraPower will build the $4 billion, 345-megawatt facility at the Naughton Power Plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming, about 130 miles northeast of Salt Lake City, the company announced Tuesday.

“The relatively small ‘Natrium’ reactor is similar to those used in some U.S. Navy submarines, and is designed to be faster and cheaper to build, and safer to run, than traditional large-scale reactors. The project has broad support from Wyoming’s conservative political leaders and from the Biden administration. ‘The Natrium reactor is the future of nuclear energy in America. It makes perfect sense to have it in Wyoming, the energy capital of the United States. Wyoming’s economy will grow from having this groundbreaking technology in our state,’ U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, said in a statement to USA TODAY. ‘Our abundant energy sources including coal, oil, natural gas, renewables, and now nuclear power will continue to provide good-paying jobs. Americans across the country will depend on Wyoming energy for decades and decades to come.’

“Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns the coal-fired Naughton plant, and is shutting it down as part of the company’s efforts to transition to cleaner fuels such as wind and solar. Nuclear power plants don’t emit carbon pollution, and are considered by many experts to be a necessary step in reducing emissions to combat climate change. Gates’ TerraPower is partnering with GE-Hitachi to build the plant, which could be running within seven years, as mandated by federal officials. Putting the reactor adjacent to a coal-fired power plant takes advantage of existing infrastructure, including cooling water and high-capacity transmission lines. The plant would operate for 60 years, company officials said.”