How to invest in terrapower?
In fact, you can buy shares in TerraPower through a pre-IPO investing platform. Two pre-IPO platforms, EquityZen and Forge (formerly Sharespost), let investors buy shares from an employee or investor in a private company.
Bill Gates is co-founder of Microsoft, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and founder and chairman of TerraPower.
Along with oil, coal and natural gas, nuclear power offers investors an additional way to profit from increasing energy demand. Investors can purchase shares in an exchange-traded fund that covers the entire nuclear power industry, or select stock in a company that focuses on one aspect of it.
Despite nuclear power's baneful reputation, it is actually the safest form of power generation when analyzed by deaths per unit of electricity generated, according to Gates. And TerraPower's Natrium Reactor plants will be safer still, thanks in large part to a more reliable cooling system for its reactors.
TerraPower, bankrolled by Gates, aims to use advanced cooling materials to build smaller, cheaper and more efficient reactors than conventional ones that use water for cooling. It plans to build two reactors in cooperation with the U.S. Energy Department, and expects to begin operations in 2028.
TerraPower, a start-up co-founded by Bill Gates to revolutionize designs for nuclear reactors, has chosen Kemmerer, Wyoming, as the preferred location for its first demonstration reactor. It aims to build the plant in the frontier-era coal town by 2028.
Yes, a Bill Gates-owned company is planning to build a nuclear power plant in Wyoming. TerraPower, which was co-founded by Bill Gates, recently selected a Wyoming site to demonstrate its first-of-a-kind Natrium nuclear reactor. Much of what Bill Gates does is put under a microscope.
The largest Nuclear ETF is the Global X Uranium ETF URA with $1.85B in assets. In the last trailing year, the best-performing Nuclear ETF was URNM at 28.90%. The most recent ETF launched in the Nuclear space was the Sprott Uranium Miners ETF URNM on 12/03/19.
Some of the best ways to invest in this trend include: Cameco, Uranium Energy UEC, -10.69% , Uranium Royalty UROY, -4.30% , the Global X Uranium URA, -6.52% exchange traded fund, the North Shore Global Uranium Mining URNM, -6.55% ETF, and Exelon EXC, -2.13% and Duke Energy DUK, -0.42% , which have lots of nuclear ...
- Cameco Corporation (CCJ)
- Energy Fuels (UUUU)
- Uranium Energy Corp. ( UEC)
- Ur-Energy Inc. ( URG)
- Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp. ( WUC)
- Fission Uranium Corp. ( FCU)
- ANU Energy OEIC Ltd.
- Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (SRUFF)
What happened TerraPower?
Commercial power plants, generating about 1150 MWe, were planned for the late 2020s. However, in January 2019 it was announced that the project had been abandoned due to technology transfer limitations placed by the Trump administration.
Nuclear power generates electricity without the direct combustion of fossil fuels, which releases greenhouse gases. And Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has been one of America's most high-profile proponents of nuclear power to help the nation reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
An Innovative Nuclear Technology
In the center of the core sit rods of enriched uranium (U-235), surrounded by rods of depleted or natural uranium (U-238). The U-235 serves as an initiator, kick starting the traveling wave reaction – a slow-moving chain reaction of concentric waves of fission.
The most developed Gen IV reactor design, the sodium fast reactor, has received the greatest share of funding over the years with a number of demonstration facilities operated, as well as two commercial reactors, operating in Russia. One of these has been in commercial operation since 1981.
The risk of accidents in nuclear power plants is low and declining. The consequences of an accident or terrorist attack are minimal compared with other commonly accepted risks. Radiological effects on people of any radioactive releases can be avoided.
Its 2020 report, Capital Cost and Performance Characteristic Estimates for Utility Scale Electric Power Generating Technologies, gave an estimate for a new US nuclear plant of $6041/kWe (overnight cost).
"Today marks a historic moment for NuScale as we become the first publicly traded company focused on the design and deployment of SMR technology. As a public company, we can accelerate our efforts to help meet the world's urgent clean energy needs."
...
| Characteristic | Number of reactors built |
|---|---|
| General Electric/Hitachi (U.S./Japan) | 64 |
| Kepco (South Korea) | 20 |
| Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan) | 19 |
What is TerraPower? TerraPower is a startup developing small, modular nuclear reactors to provide a future source of safe, low-cost, and abundant clean energy. It is also developing technologies for cancer treatment and reactor design software.
A tiny city in the top US coalmining state of Wyoming is set to become the home of an experimental nuclear power project backed by Bill Gates. The new Natrium nuclear power plant will be located in Kemmerer, officials announced on Tuesday, and will replace a coal-fired plant that is set to close in 2025.
Does Bill Gates own land in Wyoming?
States Gates owns land in include Washington, California, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana.
SMRs feature smaller, less robust containment systems than current reactors. This can have negative safety consequences, including a greater probability of damage from hydrogen explosions.
Can you invest in uranium? Unlike other commodities and raw materials such as gold, silver and crude oil, it is not possible to invest in or trade on physical uranium, due to its radioactive nature. Instead, an alternative way of gaining exposure to this commodity is via the stock market.
- North Shore Global Uranium Mining ETF (URNM) As of date: February 28, 2022. 1-year performance: 48.07% ...
- Global X Uranium ETF (URA) As of date: February 28, 2022. 1-year performance: 41.71% ...
- VanEck Uranium+Nuclear Energy ETF (NLR) As of date: February 28, 2022. 1-year performance: 15.71%
Is Global X Uranium ETF ETF A Buy? The Global X Uranium ETF holds several negative signals and despite the positive trend, we believe Global X Uranium will perform weakly in the next couple of days or weeks. Therefore, we hold a negative evaluation of this ETF.
The Global X Hydrogen ETF (HYDR) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Solactive Global Hydrogen Index.
A study in 2019 by the economic think tank DIW Berlin, found that nuclear power has not been profitable anywhere in the world.
Nuclear power provides about 10% of the world's electricity, and 18% of electricity in OECD countries. Almost all reports on future energy supply from major organizations suggest an increasing role for nuclear power as an environmentally benign way of producing reliable electricity on a large scale.
Electricity Demand
The strength of the world economy contributes a lot to demand in the stock market in general. Uranium is trending as a way to fuel electricity. In turn, the rise in electricity use is fueling the demand for nuclear power and uranium.
- Kazakhstan - 22,808 tons.
- Canada - 6,936 tons.
- Australia - 6,613 tons.
- Namibia - 5,476 tons.
- Niger - 2,983 tons.
- Russia - 2,911 tons.
- Uzbekistan - 2,404 tons.
- China - 1,885 tons.
Will uranium stocks bounce back?
"Uranium production volumes at existing mines are projected to remain fairly stable until the late 2020s, then decreasing by more than half from 2030 to 2040," the WNA report states. This is also due in part to the lack of uranium exploration in recent years.
As a sodium-based technology, the reactor offers natural, inherent safety characteristics and high efficiency and has significant, existing operational performance data. Compared to conventional nuclear technologies, the Natrium reactor will operate at higher temperatures and lower pressures.
TerraPower uses a small amount of enriched uranium at the beginning of the process (see slides at the bottom of the post), but then the nuclear reactor runs on the waste product and can make and consume its own fuel.
Terrapower, LLC has 50 total employees across all of its locations and generates $30.67 million in sales (USD).
As of December 31, 2021, there were 55 commercially operating nuclear power plants with 93 nuclear power reactors in 28 U.S. states. Of the currently operating nuclear power plants, 23 plants have one reactor, 32 plants have two reactors, and 3 plants have three reactors.
To shut down a nuclear power plant, the reactor must be brought into a permanently uncritical state (subcriticality) and the heat that continuous to generate must be discharged safely.
However, despite extended relicensing, U.S. reactors continue to close due to technical safety issues, adverse economics and shifts in energy policy. Nuclear power is economically failing in an electricity market dominated by more competitive energy generation.
Projected Nuclear Power Plant Construction Costs Are Soaring
Companies that are planning new nuclear units are currently indicating that the total costs (including escalation and financing costs) will be in the range of $5,500/kW to $8,100/kW or between $6 billion and $9 billion for each 1,100 MW plant.
Forty years is a typical lifespan for a nuclear power plant built in the 70s or 80s. While it's quite common for plants to have their operational lifetime extended, particularly in the US, many close earlier.
TWRs use only a small amount (~10%) of enriched uranium-235 or other fissile fuel to "initiate" the nuclear reaction. The remainder of the fuel consists of natural or depleted uranium-238, which can generate power continuously for 40 years or more and remains sealed in the reactor vessel during that time.
What is 4th generation nuclear power?
Fourth generation nuclear power, or Generation IV, implies a system of reactors and nuclear fuel cycle facilities – fuel fabrication plants and reprocessing facilities – that together may manage the weaknesses often associated with nuclear power of today.
A Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) is a nuclear reactor that uses fast neutron to generate more nuclear fuels than they consume while generating power, dramatically enhancing the efficiency of the use of resources. Nuclear fission by fast neutron causes the increase in neutrons generated.
Generation IV nuclear power involves a system of fuel fabrication plants and reprocessing facilities that together would overcome some of the shortcomings of current nuclear power plants. Plutonium is formed when uranium-238 captures neutrons from nuclear fission reactions.
If a nuclear power plant accident occurs, heat and pressure build up, and the steam, along with the radioactive materials, may be released.
The major risk is loss of power to the site. Without power, the reactor's cooling systems would fail, triggering a meltdown.
The Chernobyl accident in 1986 was the result of a flawed reactor design that was operated with inadequately trained personnel. The resulting steam explosion and fires released at least 5% of the radioactive reactor core into the environment, with the deposition of radioactive materials in many parts of Europe.
All told, problems that reduced the construction efficiency contributed nearly 70 percent to the increased costs. By contrast, R&D-related expenses, which included both regulatory changes and things like the identification of better materials or designs, accounted for the other third of the increases.
Nuclear is also much more expensive, the WNISR report said. The cost of generating solar power ranges from $36 to $44 per megawatt hour (MWh), the WNISR said, while onshore wind power comes in at $29–$56 per MWh. Nuclear energy costs between $112 and $189.
