TerraPower has announced its selection of industry experts Sargent & Lundy to design the Kemmerer Training Center (KTC); another major milestone for TerraPower’s Natrium Reactor Demonstration Project in Kemmerer, Wyoming. 

The 30,000 square foot Kemmerer Training Center will host all Natrium operation training activities, for both the demonstration project as well as future Natrium plants. The center will house the Natrium Training Simulator, laboratories for electrical and Instrumentation & Control (I&C), mechanical and scientific laboratories, training classrooms, an auditorium and more. The center will support all operator accredited programs. Design of the facility will begin immediately, and construction is expected to finish in the fall of 2025. 

“When we announced Kemmerer as the location for the first Natrium plant, we promised long-term, high-paying jobs to the community. I am excited that not only will the Natrium project bring permanent positions to operate Kemmerer Unit 1, but that TerraPower will continue to bring future Natrium operators from around the country to this cutting-edge training facility,” said TerraPower President and CEO Chris Levesque. “Sargent & Lundy has over 100 years of expertise is creating high-tech facilities and I know they’ll design a world-class training center at our site in Wyoming.”

Founded in 1891, Sargent & Lundy is a global leader in full-service architect engineering design for the power industry, with nuclear power leadership dating as far back as the 1950s, when the company designed the world’s first boiling water reactor installation at Argonne National Laboratory. Sargent & Lundy has designed over 30 nuclear units and continues to engage heavily in the nuclear power industry supporting the operating fleet as well as advanced reactor projects. Sargent & Lundy’s extensive expertise will ensure cutting-edge facilities to support the training and development of Kemmerer Power Station control room operators and staff. 

The Natrium technology features a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten salt-based energy storage system. The storage technology can boost the system’s output to 500 MWe for more than five and a half hours when needed. This innovative addition allows a Natrium plant to integrate seamlessly with renewable resources and leads to faster, more cost-effective decarbonization of the electric grid while producing dispatchable carbon-free energy. TerraPower is building the first Natrium plant in Wyoming, with plans to expand rapidly throughout the country to meet growing energy demand with clean, reliable nuclear power and energy storage. 

Future Request for Proposal (RFP) opportunities for the Natrium Reactor Demonstration Project can be found on TerraPower’s website: https://terrapower.com/suppliers/ 

The process of awarding contracts for the project is ongoing. TerraPower will continue to provide updates as additional contracts are awarded.