(0:21) How are you today? Appreciate your time. I’m doing great, Duke. Nice to meet you and (0:26) happy to be here today.

Thank you. Thank you. Now, this is the first time we’ve had you on (0:29) the air.

So tell us more about your role with TerraPower and what your position is here as the COO. (0:36) Yeah, COO for TerraPower, I have the privilege of overseeing all of the operations associated (0:43) with our reactor projects. And by far, the main project that we’re involved with is the (0:49) building of the natrium reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

So I spend most of my time on that. (0:55) We also have a medical isotopes program here and are involved in a few other smaller projects, (1:01) but that’s by far the main effort that we have. All right.

Well, of course, excavation work has (1:07) begun and I had the chance to be there on site as that began last week. So walk us through the (1:13) process here and what people will begin to see over the next course of the next few months and (1:17) into the summer and fall on this project. Okay, great.

First of all, there’s been a couple of (1:25) construction works going on the site for a couple of years now. So we’ve been constructing our main (1:31) sodium test facility, which you’ll see is the largest structure on the site today. (1:37) You probably saw that, Duke, when you were out there.

So all the structural steel is up for that (1:42) and the siting is going on or was starting to go on last week. That’s where we’re going to test (1:47) full-size prototypes of equipment that’s going to go in the natrium plant in a liquid sodium (1:53) environment at reactor temperatures. And so we’ll get a lot of great data from that.

And (1:59) that facility is going to be completed in 2027 and we’ll continue to operate and produce test data (2:06) all the way up through when the reactor begins and probably will continue to be used for years (2:13) or decades after that for supporting other innovation and testing that we want to do (2:18) for the whole fleet. So that is something that will be done from Kemmerer, Wyoming (2:23) for many years to come. We’ve also been working on our Kemmerer Training Center.

And right when (2:29) you come in the site, if you look off to the right, you’ll see the foundation has been completed for (2:35) that. And that building is going to house our operator training simulator. And we actually (2:41) deliver that simulator to the site.

It’s currently being operated from a trailer while we complete (2:49) the Kemmerer Training Center building. But you’ll start to see the structural seal for that side to (2:54) go up here over the next few months throughout this year. And then, like you said, we started (3:00) just last week officially doing construction inside the plant footprint.

And so right now, (3:06) it’s been a lot of, we call it clearing and grubbing. So basically, you know, flattening out (3:12) the land, setting up lay down areas, removing vegetation very carefully as we go through that, (3:20) you know, looking for wildlife and things like that that might be in the way. And so we didn’t (3:26) find any of that.

We completed that clearing operation. And so when you go off to the site now, (3:31) it looks like a nice open piece of land that we can start doing the real work on. (3:36) So going into May is going to be a lot of what we call earthworks.

So continuing to do grading, (3:45) you know, moving earth around to prepare the various areas for further construction. There’s (3:51) also going to be some work to set up a concrete batch plant that should also be completed in May. (3:58) And that’s going to be right there on the site as you go into the right.

(4:02) And that’s going to provide the concrete for the rest of the construction project. So that’s (4:07) important to get done here in May. Going into June, you’re going to see a lot of (4:13) more excavation to start putting underground commodities in place.

We’re going to start that (4:19) on the energy island. So the non-nuclear side of the plant is going to go first. (4:24) And that’s the part of the land that you see as you first drive in.

(4:28) And so we’re going to start there and then start moving down further towards the nuclear island (4:33) site. And then in August is a pretty big milestone. We’re going to start building (4:39) another building on site.

We call our reactor fabrication building. And that’s pretty important. (4:45) That’s going to be a larger structure, about the same size, maybe a little bit larger (4:49) than the test and fill facility that I mentioned earlier.

And it’s going to be down the site near (4:55) the test and fill facility, in fact. And that’s where we’re going to deliver the major components (5:00) of the reactor and assemble them together before lowering them in the shaft when we get to the (5:07) nuclear island part of the construction. So that’s going to begin in August.

And that’ll (5:12) be the next major structure that people see on the site. And then in December is a pretty major (5:19) point as well, because we will start excavating the main reactor shaft. So that’s going to be (5:26) on the nuclear island side of the plant.

And that’s where the reactor is going to live. So (5:31) it’s very important to get that going. That’s kind of on the critical path for starting up (5:37) the whole project.

And then early in 2027, we’ll start to put the concrete in that reactor shaft. (5:45) And in the nuclear industry, that’s an important milestone too. We call it first nuclear concrete.

(5:51) So that should be in early 2027. So that gives you kind of an idea of the main milestones going (5:57) through the year for the construction. Excellent.

Excellent. Speaking with Eric (6:01) Williams, he’s the COO of TerraPower. And remind us, when is the planned final completion date (6:08) for this project? Yeah.

So commercial operation is going to be December, (6:14) 2031. We’re really excited about that, holding onto that schedule. Another key one is fuel is (6:21) going to be loaded in 2030, which will be when the reactor goes critical.

And so that’s a pretty (6:28) important milestone too, and very exciting for all of us here in the nuclear industry. (6:33) As we think of it going critical is, you know, the ultimate proof that the reactor works. It (6:40) turns on, it generates heat from nuclear fission.

So that’s pretty exciting too. (6:45) Excellent. Speaking with Eric Williams, TerraPower chief operations officer, (6:49) there’s been estimates around 1600 workers, construction workers that are going to be (6:54) involved in this project and during the construction phase.

How is TerraPower (6:59) working with local contractors? Obviously there’s a lot of technical aspects to this project, but (7:05) how are local contractors involved from right here in Lincoln County? (7:09) Yeah, that’s one of the exciting things about this project is it can have a positive impact (7:16) on the community even long before the reactor actually starts up. And so we’re very committed (7:22) to being good partners with the community in Kimmerer, and we encourage our contractors, (7:29) our main construction contractor, Bechtel, and the others that we bring onto the site to use (7:34) local talent as much as they possibly can. And that’s been happening so far, about 60% of the (7:41) subcontractors we’ve been using on site have been either local Wyoming businesses or have (7:47) offices in Wyoming as well as elsewhere.

And so that’s a pretty important aspect of how we’ve (7:54) been moving forward. It’s also a good way to get talent, you know, is to focus on the local (7:59) community. And so, you know, a couple of big ones are Earthworks Solutions from Gillette, Wyoming, (8:07) you know, is doing a lot of the earth work that I referred to earlier, that’s going to be going on (8:12) in May and June and down the road.

We’ve also got companies from, you know, from there in (8:19) Kimmerer. We’re also hiring, TerraPower’s directly hiring people from Kimmerer and, you know, have (8:25) job postings that are located in Kimmerer, and we’re moving people there. So we’ve got an operations (8:32) staff that’s building up to about 50 people that those people are living there in Kimmerer.

So, (8:39) you know, population is growing already from the project activities. (8:44) Well, Eric, appreciate your time today. Anything else about this project you feel is worthwhile (8:48) mentioning while we have you on the air today? No, just really exciting to see, you know, (8:56) the physical plant starting to go up and really taking care to do that carefully.

There’s been (9:03) a lot of work to plan this project out from a socioeconomic perspective to make sure that it (9:09) doesn’t adversely impact the community in any way. So we’re careful about that, and we keep (9:16) looking closely at that as we look at our staffing numbers. Sometimes, you know, the schedule needs to (9:22) be compressed and might need to bring even more than 1,600 workers in from time to time, but (9:28) we’re being careful to do that and make sure that we do it in the right way.

So, you know, (9:34) exciting to see the progress, and I hope everyone who drives by the plant will appreciate all the (9:40) good work that’s happening out there. And thanks to all the people in Kimmerer who support this. (9:46) I was there last week, too, and it’s always a pleasant time to go there.

They really motivate (9:51) me to do my work because of the positive welcome that we get from the community there. (9:57) That’s Eric Williams, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer (10:01) with TerraPower. It’s all part of the weekday wake-up this morning on SVI Radio.