Start Me Up

Bill Gates and the future of nuclear power:

Thanks to his role funding and guiding a start-up called TerraPower LLC, where he serves as chairman, Mr. Gates has become a player in a field of inventors whose goal is to make nuclear reactors smaller, cheaper and safer than today’s nuclear energy sources. The 30-person company recently completed a basic design for a reactor that theoretically could run untouched for decades on spent nuclear fuel. Now the company is seeking a partner to help build the experimental reactor, and a country willing to host it.

Me. I’ll host it. Put the thing in my back yard and I’ll plug my whole house into the thing.

More seriously, there’s been talk for years about building tiny nuclear power plants using spent fuel rods, so it’s nice to see something like progress. Or as my high school physics teacher once said, “Don’t bury nuclear waste too deep — your children will curse you. There’s still plenty of power to be gotten out of that stuff.”

Well, that was 25 years ago and our kids need the cheap power. We need the cheap power. Bring it on.