TerraPower and China National Nuclear Corp., a state-owned economic entity heavily involved in commercial and military nuclear matters, reached a formal agreement in 2017 to jointly develop and build a breed-and-burn reactor south of Beijing early in the next decade. But, last Fall the Trump administration severely restricted exports of American civilian nuclear technology to China. So Bill Gates, founder and chairman of TerraPower, lobbied congressional members for support of advanced reactors, telling them that he would personally invest $1 billion and raise another $1 billion from private investors to go with federal funds to build a pilot plant. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska and chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, introduced a bill called the Nuclear Energy Leadership Act with 14 Republican and Democratic co-sponsors. The bill, well-designed for TerraPower's technology, would extend the current limit of contracts to purchase nuclear power from 10 years to 40 years, which would favor reactors that burn fuel for 20 to 60 years. The bill also calls for the federal government to map out long-range plans for research on advanced reactors and for research on “fast neutron” reactors. A bipartisan clone of Murkowski’s bill was introduced in the House in June. A new patent application filed in January 2019 for a new reactor design was recently published, showing TerraPower is evolving their reactor design.
