TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates revealed that his nuclear company failed to build a nuclear power plant project with China due to the United States government.
Bill Gates revisited the incident when he met with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and Indonesian conglomerates at Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on May 7, 2025. At that time, Prabowo's brother, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, asked Bill Gates about his views on nuclear power plants and the environment.
Gates explained that he founded TerraPower in 2006 to build efficient and affordable nuclear reactors. This led to the development of the Small Modular Reactor (SMR), a fourth-generation mini nuclear reactor. TerraPower then partnered with the Chinese government to build its first prototype. However, the US government, under President Donald Trump's administration at the time, did not approve of the collaboration.
"We started as a joint venture in China. Then the US government decided that they didn't like us working in China. So we had to switch, and actually now, as you said, we are building our first reactor in the United States," said Bill Gates.
Eventually, TerraPower built its first nuclear reactor on former coal lands in Kemmerer, Wyoming, the United States, cited from TerraPower's official website. The project was undertaken in collaboration with the US Department of Energy, named the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Project.
Bill Gates also shared the reason for his involvement in nuclear power generation. When he established The Gates Foundation, he realized that the world needed cheap electricity to help developing countries. On the other hand, Gates said he became enlightened about climate change and understood that we must reduce emissions to zero percent.
"So I talked with my friends, 'Can we make nuclear energy cheap?'. So I started a company in 2006 called TerraPower to create fourth-generation nuclear reactors," said Bill Gates.
Bill Gates mentioned that many countries currently use reactors with water cooling systems. Besides being complicated, these reactors are very expensive. Hence, Bill Gates developed a new reactor design called Small Modular Reactor (SMR).
Bill Gates stated that TerraPower will build 20 SMR projects. Some of these projects will be in collaboration with South Korean companies, Hyundai and SK Group.
"Hyundai and SK are investors in this work. So by 2030, the first reactor will be operational, and during that decade, we hope to build more than 30 gigawatts of electricity," he said.
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