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Technology

TerraPower Just Broke Ground on Its Next-Gen Nuclear Project

On Bill Gates’ advanced nuclear reactor, solar geoengineering, and FEMA

TerraPower Just Broke Ground on Its Next-Gen Nuclear Project
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Heavy rains in China are boosting the country’s hydropower output • Late-season frost advisories are in place for parts of Michigan • It will be 80 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy today near the Port of Baltimore, which has officially reopened after 11 weeks of closure.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Bill Gates’ TerraPower breaks ground on next-gen nuclear project

TerraPower, the energy company founded by Bill Gates, broke ground yesterday on a next-generation nuclear power plant in Wyoming that will use an advanced nuclear reactor. As Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo and Matthew Zeitlin explained, these reactors are smaller and promise to be cheaper to build than America’s existing light-water nuclear reactor fleet. The design “would be a landmark for the American nuclear industry” because it calls for cooling with liquid sodium instead of the standard water-cooling of American nuclear plants. “This technique promises eventual lower construction costs because it requires less pressure than water (meaning less need for expensive safety systems) and can also store heat, turning the reactor into both a generator and an energy storage system.” TerraPower is still waiting for its construction permit to be approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and The Associated Press reported the work that began yesterday is just to get the site ready for speedy construction if the permit goes through.

2. Construction begins on Brooklyn’s big offshore wind hub

Another big energy project also broke ground yesterday: The South Brooklyn Marine Terminal will support Equinor’s 54-turbine Empire Wind 1 project and be the largest offshore wind port in the U.S. once completed. The terminal spans 73 acres in Sunset Park. Along with supporting the assembly and storage of wind turbine components, it will also house a substation connecting energy from Empire Wind 1 to the grid. Empire Wind will deliver 810 megawatts of renewable energy to New York, enough to power nearly 500,000 homes. The terminal’s construction is expected to be finished by the end of 2026. Below you can see what the port looks like now, and a rendering of the finished project:

Equinor

Equinor

3. Environmental Defense Fund will invest in solar geoengineering research

The nonprofit group Environmental Defense Fund will start funding research into solar geoengineering, The New York Timesreported. Up until very recently, solar geoengineering was “one of climate science’s biggest taboos,” as Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer put it. That’s because it involves trying to cool the planet by reflecting the sun’s heat back into space. Some scientists and environmentalists worry geoengineering could have unintended consequences for the climate, and would give greenhouse gas emitters an excuse to keep on polluting. But as temperatures soar and global emissions remain stubbornly high, scientists have started to embrace the idea, and the EDF says because the topic isn’t going away, it wants to fund solid research that can help inform policymakers should geoengineering get the greenlight in the future. The EDF is looking to issue its first grants this fall.

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  • 4. FEMA’s disaster relief fund is already running low

    Hurricane season has only just started, and already the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund is running low, CNN reported. So far the nation has been hit with 11 extreme weather disasters this year, costing $25.1 billion and leaving FEMA’s fund facing the prospect of a $1.3 billion shortfall in August unless Congress frees up additional funding. The costs are only expected to mount: Meteorologists expect the 2024 hurricane season to be extremely busy, and intense heat waves in western states could make for a busy wildfire season.

    NOAA

    5. California lawsuit takes aim at big oil companies’ profits

    California is gunning for big oil companies’ profits. Since September of last year, the state has been pursuing a lawsuit against five major oil companies (and the American Petroleum Institute), accusing them of greenwashing, and deceiving the public about the risks of climate change and how their fossil fuel products contribute to it. Yesterday California Attorney General Rob Bonta amended the suit to incorporate a new state law that allows him to seek a company’s “unjust profits” made through violating consumer protection and advertising laws. The suit wants the profits to be directed into a victims’ restitution fund. According to the Financial Times, the updated filing includes new evidence that the companies made “false and misleading statements” in widespread U.S. advertising campaigns.

    THE KICKER

    Researchers have just discovered that ocean algae play a key role in cooling the planet by producing large amounts of a compound that helps with the formation of clouds.

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    Politics

    Here Are the Grants EPA Canceled

    The agency provided a list to the Sierra Club, which in turn provided the list to Heatmap.

    Lee Zeldin.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency remain closed-lipped about which grants they’ve canceled. Earlier this week, however, the office provided a written list to the Sierra Club in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, which begins to shed light on some of the agency’s actions.

    The document shows 49 individual grants that were either “canceled” or prevented from being awarded from January 20 through March 7, which is the day the public information office conducted its search in response to the FOIA request. The grants’ total cumulative value is more than $230 million, although some $30 million appears to have already been paid out to recipients.

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    Energy

    The New Campaign to Save Renewables: Lower Electricity Bills

    Defenders of the Inflation Reduction Act have hit on what they hope will be a persuasive argument for why it should stay.

    A leaf and a quarter.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    With the fate of the Inflation Reduction Act and its tax credits for building and producing clean energy hanging in the balance, the law’s supporters have increasingly turned to dollars-and-cents arguments in favor of its preservation. Since the election, industry and research groups have put out a handful of reports making the broad argument that in addition to higher greenhouse gas emissions, taking away these tax credits would mean higher electricity bills.

    The American Clean Power Association put out a report in December, authored by the consulting firm ICF, arguing that “energy tax credits will drive $1.9 trillion in growth, creating 13.7 million jobs and delivering 4x return on investment.”

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    Green
    Politics

    AM Briefing: A Letter from EPA Staff

    On environmental justice grants, melting glaciers, and Amazon’s carbon credits

    EPA Workers Wrote an Anonymous Letter to America
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Current conditions: Severe thunderstorms are expected across the Mississippi Valley this weekend • Storm Martinho pushed Portugal’s wind power generation to “historic maximums” • It’s 62 degrees Fahrenheit, cloudy, and very quiet at Heathrow Airport outside London, where a large fire at an electricity substation forced the international travel hub to close.

    THE TOP FIVE

    1. Trump issues executive order to expand critical mineral output

    President Trump invoked emergency powers Thursday to expand production of critical minerals and reduce the nation’s reliance on other countries. The executive order relies on the Defense Production Act, which “grants the president powers to ensure the nation’s defense by expanding and expediting the supply of materials and services from the domestic industrial base.”

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