TerraPower Buys Korean Reactor Tech for Wyoming Nuclear Plant

TerraPower just secured the safety blueprints that could make its groundbreaking Wyoming nuclear reactor a reality.

The Washington-based company paid $4.67 million last year for intellectual property from South Korea's top nuclear research institute. What they got was something no other American company owns: the complete design specs and operational data for STELLA-2, the world's most advanced sodium-cooled reactor safety-testing facility.

The timing couldn't be better. Two months ago, TerraPower received the first-ever U.S. construction permit for a commercial non-light-water reactor. Now five of their engineers just finished hands-on training in South Korea, learning how to build their own version of the testing facility on American soil.

The Kemmerer, Wyoming plant breaking ground right now isn't your typical nuclear reactor. Instead of water, it uses liquid sodium to cool the core, which means it runs at normal atmospheric pressure rather than the extreme pressures that make traditional reactors risky. The trade-off is that sodium reacts with water and air, so any leak needs careful handling.

That's exactly what STELLA-2 was built to test. South Korea's researchers spent years mapping every possible scenario, from normal operations to emergency conditions, creating a safety playbook that France and Russia are the only other countries to match. TerraPower will use this data to prove to regulators that their design works before they ever load nuclear fuel.

The plant itself is something special. It pairs a 345-megawatt reactor with a molten-salt battery system that can boost output to 500 megawatts when the grid needs it most. That storage capability means it can work alongside solar and wind power, absorbing extra energy when the sun's shining and delivering it back during peak demand.

Construction should finish by 2030, with the plant powering homes by 2031. Half the $4 billion cost comes from the U.S. Department of Energy, with Bill Gates and South Korean investors covering the rest. Meta already signed up for eight of these reactors, with the first two delivering power by 2032.

The Ripple Effect

This technology transfer represents more than one company's success story. South Korea developed STELLA-2 over decades of research, and now that expertise is crossing borders to help decarbonize America's grid. The training program that just wrapped up created lasting technical partnerships between Korean and American nuclear engineers.

Meanwhile, the coal plant being replaced in Kemmerer employed hundreds of workers in a town of 2,600 people. The new reactor promises long-term skilled jobs in a community that needs them, showing how clean energy transitions can support rather than abandon fossil fuel towns.

Alan Ahn from the think tank Third Way calls TerraPower "one of the leaders of the pack" among next-generation reactor developers at a time when tech companies are scrambling to secure carbon-free power for data centers and AI operations.

Building America's nuclear future just got a boost from an unexpected place, and a Wyoming coal town is about to become the testing ground for technology that could power millions of homes without emissions.