TerraPower’s TWR conceptual design for a gigawattscale reactor, which is big enough to power a city, has already been completed. A conceptual design effort is currently underway for a small modular unit that generates a few hundred megawatts of electricity which could fit the needs of emerging markets.

 - By Linton Levy -

Charles River Ventures (CRV), one of the nation's leading early-stage venture capital firms, has announced that it has invested in the $35 million Series B financing round for TerraPower, LLC. TerraPower is a Bellevue, Washington-based company developing new options for nuclear energy production.

Khosla Ventures also joined in the round for this three-year-old company that counts Intellectual Ventures co-founder Nathan Myhrvold and investor Bill Gates among its supporters.

Izhar Armony, general partner at Charles River Ventures and TerraPower board member, said that nuclear energy is going to play a significant role as one of the few carbon-free sources for baseload power in the future of the United States and the world. The United States is just one of 30 nations exploring future construction of nuclear reactors.

Intellectual Ventures has launched an effort to design nuclear energy reactors that improve on those in operation today.
Called a Traveling-Wave Reactor (TWR). The TWR can run for 50 to 100 years without refueling or removing any used fuel from the reactor. By greatly simplifying the nuclear fuel cycle, TWRs could improve the cost, safety, social acceptability, and long-term sustainability of nuclear energy as a source of emissions-free electricity.

Nuclear power plants produce electricity from the heat generated when big and unstable atoms, such as plutonium-239 or uranium-235, split apart into smaller atoms. Each time a big atom splits (or “fissions”), it releases fast-moving neutrons that can cause other fissions which allow for a sustained chain reaction.

A nuclear fission reactor produces and controls the release of energy from splitting atoms of certain heavy elements. The nuclear power plants of today require a full core of fuel made from enriched uranium. The TWR, in contrast, initially contains only a small amount of enriched uranium, which is used to kick off the chain reaction through a core of depleted uranium.

The wave of fission would move slowly through this depleted uranium core, splitting many more of the uranium atoms than a conventional reactor would.  Depleted uranium, which is mostly uranium-238, is currently set aside as waste when uranium-235 is taken out of natural uranium at enrichment plants.

A Simpler, Safer Fuel Cycle
Unlike light water reactors, the TWR can theoretically run forever without ever needing any additional enriched uranium after its startup period, provided sufficient depleted uranium is supplied. Given currently known uranium reserves, this fleet could supply the world’s needs for energy for thousands of years without any need for chemical reprocessing of the used fuel. Since enrichment and reprocessing are the two most significant sources of proliferation risk in the nuclear fuel cycle, this ability is a major advance in reducing the inherent risks of weapons material proliferation.

TerraPower’s scientists and engineers are investigating a wide range of designs for TWRs. The conceptual design for a gigawattscale reactor, which is big enough to power a city, has already been completed.

A conceptual design effort is currently underway for a small modular unit that generates a few hundred megawatts of electricity which could fit the needs of emerging markets.  On march 23rd TerraPower, announced that is was in discussions with Toshiba on developing a small nuclear reactor http://nuclearstreet.com/blogs/nuclear_power_news/archive/2010/03/23/Bill-Gates_2700_-TerraPower-And-Toshiba-In-Talks-On-Development-Of-Small-Nuke-03239.aspx.  Toshiba owns Westinghouse Nuclear and brings considerable assets and experience to any nuclear joint venture.

"A short term approach to investing isn't going to help achieve the goals many have for a clean-energy future," said Armony. "TerraPower offers a vision for an ideal system and then brings together inspired people with the tools they need to advance reactor designs to transform waste liabilities into assets. The traveling-wave reactor is an incredibly exciting new design that could really advance the nuclear energy field."

TerraPower was formed to advance innovative approaches to nuclear energy that were identified in "invention sessions" at CRV portfolio company Intellectual Ventures. Invention sessions are multidisciplinary brainstorming events focused on a particular set of issues and possible solutions.

"We are thrilled to attract VC investment in research and development. It shows markets are putting value to what's required to bring about real advancement," said Myhrvold. "TerraPower appeals to investors who know the commitment necessary to invent solutions to the complex problems facing the world today."

TerraPower is one of the first companies formed specifically to advance inventions created in an Intellectual Ventures invention session. The company has grown to nearly 40 full time professionals and 75 technical consultants whose expertise in nuclear engineering, physics and computer science have made unprecedented advancements in nuclear reactor design.

Gates is expected to use his personal funding and assets to back the development of TWRs and his investment could reach several billion dollars. 

Intellectual Ventures’ investments in energy inventions have evolved to become TerraPower, an expert team that is investigating innovative ways to address energy needs. TerraPower’s most advanced work centers on radically improving ways to make electricity using nuclear reactors.

TerraPower’s innovative reactor designs could avoid the well-known limitations of current plants, nearly all of which employ nuclear reactor technology that dates back to the 1950s. Today’s reactor designs require rare, enriched uranium fuel, but can extract only a small fraction of the energy from that fuel. As a result, these reactors produce too much waste, consume too much of our dwindling and increasingly costly uranium resources, and require frequent and expensive refueling.

The TerraPower initiative is advancing a comprehensive program to improve the technology of reliable nuclear plants. Its business approach presents an important alternative towards the creation of a financially and socially attractive emission-free energy that is safe and sustainable.

Founded in 1970, Charles River Ventures is one of the nation's oldest and most successful early-stage venture capital firms with approximately $2.1 billion under management. CRV is dedicated to helping exceptional entrepreneurs turn their ideas into the next category leaders in high growth technology and media sectors. Over the past 20 years, CRV funds have been ranked among the industry's top performers. CRV has offices in Boston, MA and Menlo Park, CA.