Chris Levesque, President and CEO of TerraPower, called into the Weekday Wake-Up to provide an update on the construction process of the TerraPower Natrium One reactor, the Test & Fill facility and the Nuclear Training Center, all being built near Kemmerer.

(0:00) Weekday wake up on SBI radio, Swift 98 and the spur heading into our guest (0:04) interview segment for today and talking TerraPower this morning, president (0:08) and CEO of TerraPower, Chris Levesque on the weekday wake up with us today for (0:13) an update to Chris, thank you so much for your time. (0:15) We appreciate it today. (0:17) Yeah, thanks for having me Duke.

(0:18) And you know, thanks for following the project. (0:21) Yeah, absolutely. (0:22) Well, of course the big news recently was the construction (0:25) permit awarded to TerraPower.

(0:27) And for the, the nuclear power plant itself for the natrium plant. (0:31) And, uh, this actually happened well ahead of schedule. (0:34) It sounds like from the nuclear regulatory commission, correct? (0:38) Yeah, that’s right.

(0:39) It was, um, about nine months ahead of, you know, an already, (0:44) um, pretty aggressive schedule. (0:46) And, you know, by the way, thanks, thanks to you Duke and some of the other (0:50) Wyoming media for, for joining the formal announcement with the, uh, the (0:55) chairman of the NRC, uh, it, it was great for, you know, Wyoming media to be able (1:00) to see that, that process of, you know, how the NRC goes about, uh, you know, (1:06) reviewing the safety of the plant. (1:08) You know, it, it really is all about the, you know, the federal regulator, the (1:12) nuclear regulatory commission, um, who employs a lot of, you know, a lot of (1:16) engineers, top, top nuclear people.

(1:19) Um, you know, they review our application, um, and our environmental (1:22) impact, um, you know, story to really ensure that the people of Wyoming are, (1:29) are being protected and, um, you know, with, with a safe reactor and a reactor (1:34) that’s not going to have adverse impacts on the community. (1:38) So, uh, you know, it, it was great that, you know, your listeners could, (1:42) um, you know, get that, get that insight. (1:46) Um, the application was like, uh, I think 14,000 pages.

(1:50) Uh, so really detailed and rigorous, um, a lot of engagement with the NRC. (1:56) Um, but, you know, overall we were, we were happy with the timeliness of it. (2:00) The NRC was happy with the quality of our application and, you know, now that’s (2:05) going to, uh, you know, allow us to start the nuclear construction, uh, this spring.

(2:11) Yeah. (2:12) It sounds like a pretty quick, we’ll start seeing dirt churning. (2:14) And, and, and again, just for some clarification for our listeners, we’ve, (2:18) we’ve noticed the building going up and that’s the test and fill facility, which (2:23) we’ll talk about here in a minute, but what you have been approved for, what (2:25) TerraPower has been approved for is the actual natrium now nuclear (2:29) power generating plant, correct? (2:32) Correct.

(2:33) You’re exactly right. (2:34) Uh, thanks for following these details so closely. (2:37) So, um, you know, going on two years ago, we, we broke ground for some (2:42) of the non-nuclear facilities like that test and fill facility.

(2:46) And, you know, that’s what you can see from the highway now. (2:49) It’s, uh, you know, seal’s been erected and, uh, you know, closing in the roof. (2:54) Um, so those were the non-nuclear facilities that were, um, did, (2:59) did not require federal approval.

(3:01) They were actually, uh, permitted by, um, you know, the state of (3:05) Wyoming, uh, industrial siting council. (3:08) And, you know, we’ve had a great relationship with, with (3:11) the state level regulator as well. (3:13) Um, the neat thing about starting that work year before last was, you know, we (3:19) now have, uh, over a year’s worth of experience on the site.

(3:25) Um, we, you know, work through all different weather conditions. (3:29) We’ve done excavation. (3:31) Uh, really a lot of good learnings that are going to help us as we, we move (3:34) into the, the footprint of the power plant and we’re going to be starting (3:39) some really serious earth moving, um, in, in just, uh, the coming weeks.

(3:45) Chris Levesque, president and CEO of TerraPower on the weekday wake up. (3:48) So Chris, as you head into this construction phase of Natrium, uh, some (3:52) of the things that you and I have talked about in the past, when we start thinking (3:55) timeline, uh, there was, there was concerns at one point about the (3:59) HALU that was going to be needed. (4:01) Uh, and, and then of course you went through this permitting process.

(4:04) Where do things stand with the timeline? (4:06) Is, is Natrium still on schedule? (4:08) And when do you expect to have the power plant operational? (4:11) And then, uh, some of those other things like the HALU, are, are, uh, are those (4:15) still moving forward and everything still seem to be on schedule there? (4:19) Sure. (4:19) Yeah. (4:20) Uh, you know, this is a mega project.

(4:22) Um, a lot has to come together. (4:24) Uh, you know, we call it EPC projects, engineering, procurement, construction. (4:29) Uh, we have, you know, E, P and C all happening in parallel.

(4:34) Um, the lion’s share of the E, the design is now behind us and that’s what’s (4:39) allowing us to, you know, really move in earnest into construction. (4:43) It’s also allowed us to, um, to place procurement orders for all (4:49) our key components and our fuel. (4:53) So, um, that keeps us all on schedule for, uh, making electricity by, uh, (4:59) the end of, of 2031, uh, in, by any objective measure across the U S that (5:06) makes camera unit one, uh, you know, America’s next commercial power reactor.

(5:13) So, um, you know, we’re excited to be in that leadership position and we, we (5:18) couldn’t have done it without, you know, the great support from people in (5:21) camera and all, all of Lincoln County. (5:23) Um, even earlier in that NRC review, uh, we had some town hall meetings (5:28) where the NRC, you know, got to hear from, from people in Lincoln County. (5:33) And, you know, your partnership there, um, you know, with, with (5:37) Wyoming residents is, is so valued.

(5:40) Speaking with Chris Levesque, TerraPower president and CEO. (5:43) Of course, Chris, along with the, the Natrium facility, uh, there’s also work (5:48) being done on the training facility. (5:51) Uh, that’s completely separate and, and going to also be unique to camera.

(5:54) Give us an update on that. (5:56) Yeah, sure. (5:57) Um, you know, right where you enter, um, our site off the highway, uh, we have (6:02) another construction project going on, which is, uh, uh, our training center, (6:07) which, which is also really going to focus as a, as a visitor center.

(6:10) We, we, um, um, are making plans there where we can do things like host, uh, (6:16) the local school field trips and things like that to help them understand the (6:22) Natrium reactor and nuclear energy in general, but that building is also (6:27) going to house our training simulator, um, which we’ll use to certify our operators. (6:33) Um, by the way, we already have kind of a growing, um, you know, uh, contingent (6:40) of, of TerraPower employees who are, uh, beginning to move to camera. (6:45) Those, those will be, um, the folks who will be operating the Natrium reactor.

(6:50) Um, we have local hires too, as well, uh, from the region and, you know, look (6:55) forward to that, you know, just that growing, uh, presence on site, you know, (7:00) in addition to the construction project, um, you know, moving, moving (7:05) on and reaching for the sky, you know, we’ll, we’ll have a growing team there. (7:11) Well, Chris, appreciate your time as always. (7:13) And for the updates, anything we missed that you’d like to mention this morning (7:16) as you head into this construction phase? (7:19) Yeah, just again, we appreciate our, you know, our partnership with the (7:25) people of Lincoln County, uh, you know, folks there understand energy projects.

(7:30) They’ve asked great questions along the way. (7:33) It’s, it’s been, you know, it’s been five years of, uh, teamwork (7:37) with us in the community now. (7:38) That’s Chris Levac, president and CEO of TerraPower.

(7:41) It’s all part of the weekday wake up this morning on SVI radio.