The highest hurdle for nuclear power companies is no longer securing a federal license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the CEO of the Bill Gates-backed TerraPower on Monday.
Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has vowed to speed the development of modern nuclear reactors by pressing for speedier NRC permitting and giving the Department of Energy a larger role.
“The NRC is no longer the big concern,” Chris Levesque, the CEO of TerraPower, said during an interview at the POLITICO Pub at CERAWeek. Instead, he said the larger limitations are developing the workforce and access to the materials needed to build modern reactors.
TerraPower recently became the first company to secure a permit from the NRC to construct a full, commercial advanced nuclear reactor. The company is planning to build a first-of-its-kind grid-scale small nuclear reactor. The permit allows TerraPower to begin nuclear-related construction at its Wyoming site.
“We find ourselves, very objectively, as the next commercial nuclear power station to go online in the U.S.,” Levesque said.
TerraPower CEO says it’s ‘unfortunate’ that nuclear isn’t ready to meet AI demand
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Levesque’s comments about the nuclear industry’s shifting challenges come as utilities and major tech companies look for new electricity generation to power artificial intelligence data centers. The White House, through executive orders and changes at the NRC, has pushed the independent regulator to slash the time it takes to review applications.
Some critics have expressed concern that the speedy timelines could overlook risks, though.
“The opportunity is so here,” Levesque said of the renewed focus on nuclear. “In fact, it’s unfortunate that we have all this AI demand and nuclear isn’t ready to deliver tomorrow. We really lament that.”
Levesque credited changes at the NRC and said TerraPower set a “high bar” for others pursuing licensing for advanced reactors. Other nuclear power company executives have shared similar sentiments.
“In my mind, I don’t think licensing is a bottleneck right now — especially given all of the changes that are going on, the NRC and now the DOE coming at it to accelerate some of the process,” Samuel Gibson, founder and CEO of Hadron Energy, told a Houston crowd earlier on Monday. “Supply chain is something that — there’s limited capacity. It’s kind of a small industry, so you have to secure your spot in line — and the lead-times are kind of long as well.”
Bill Jessup, chief nuclear officer at Natura Resources, said that he considered regulatory reform imperative two years ago.
“I believe it’s indicative of the progress everyone’s making that, now, our concerns are around the supply chain,” Jessup said on a March panel hosted by OurEnergyPolicy.
The TerraPower CEO also discussed potential for the private company to make an offering to investors in the public market. That’s all about timing, he said.
“The access to public capital,” Levesque said, “is something that we’ll want to do.
“The other thing you have to realize though with nuclear, due to those first-of-the-kind projects taking so long,” Levesque said, “going public too soon is a big problem.”
Still, he said there’s plenty of private money coming in. Gates remains a major investor, but he noted that chip giant NVIDIA and South Korea’s SK Group are investing and partnering in projects.
TerraPower was founded by Gates, and he currently serves as board chair. Gates has recently faced questions over his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein — a topic Levesque suggested was not top of mind for the nuclear startup’s employees.
“Our employees are so focused on our mission,” Levesque said.
Levesque said the nuclear power industry is going through a period of “disruption,” particularly amid rising electricity demand and increased interest from technology companies. That dynamic is reconfiguring how nuclear projects are being positioned and sold.
TerraPower and other advanced nuclear companies, he said, are coupling with utilities; working with the government; and signing on with Meta, Google and other tech giants.
“We’re open to all of these things, and because we have disruption in the electricity sector, all of these combinations are kind of being tried out right now,” he said.
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