Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

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.

Get Heatmap AM directly in your inbox every morning:

* indicates required
  • 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.

    Yellow

    You’re out of free articles.

    Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
    To continue reading
    Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
    or
    Please enter an email address
    By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
    Economy

    AM Briefing: Liberation Day

    On trade turbulence, special election results, and HHS cuts

    Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs Loom
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Current conditions: A rare wildfire alert has been issued for London this week due to strong winds and unseasonably high temperatures • Schools are closed on the Greek islands of Mykonos and Paros after a storm caused intense flooding • Nearly 50 million people in the central U.S. are at risk of tornadoes, hail, and historic levels of rain today as a severe weather system barrels across the country.

    THE TOP FIVE

    1. Trump to roll out broad new tariffs

    President Trump today will outline sweeping new tariffs on foreign imports during a “Liberation Day” speech in the White House Rose Garden scheduled for 4 p.m. EST. Details on the levies remain scarce. Trump has floated the idea that they will be “reciprocal” against countries that impose fees on U.S. goods, though the predominant rumor is that he could impose an across-the-board 20% tariff. The tariffs will be in addition to those already announced on Chinese goods, steel and aluminum, energy imports from Canada, and a 25% fee on imported vehicles, the latter of which comes into effect Thursday. “The tariffs are expected to disrupt the global trade in clean technologies, from electric cars to the materials used to build wind turbines,” explained Josh Gabbatiss at Carbon Brief. “And as clean technology becomes more expensive to manufacture in the U.S., other nations – particularly China – are likely to step up to fill in any gaps.” The trade turbulence will also disrupt the U.S. natural gas market, with domestic supply expected to tighten, and utility prices to rise. This could “accelerate the uptake of coal instead of gas, and result in a swell in U.S. power emissions that could accelerate climate change,” Reutersreported.

    Keep reading...Show less
    Yellow
    Podcast

    The Least-Noticed Climate Scandal of the Trump Administration

    Rob and Jesse catch up on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund with former White House official Kristina Costa.

    Lee Zeldin.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    The Inflation Reduction Act dedicated $27 billion to build a new kind of climate institution in America — a network of national green banks that could lend money to companies, states, schools, churches, and housing developers to build more clean energy and deploy more next-generation energy technology around the country.

    It was an innovative and untested program. And the Trump administration is desperately trying to block it. Since February, Trump’s criminal justice appointees — led by Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia — have tried to use criminal law to undo the program. After failing to get the FBI and Justice Department to block the flow of funds, Trump officials have successfully gotten the program’s bank partner to freeze relevant money. The new green banks have sued to gain access to the money.

    Keep reading...Show less
    Adaptation

    Funding Cuts Are Killing Small Farmers’ Trust in Climate Policy

    That trust was hard won — and it won’t be easily regained.

    A barn.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Spring — as even children know — is the season for planting. But across the country, tens of thousands of farmers who bought seeds with the help of Department of Agriculture grants are hesitating over whether or not to put them in the ground. Their contractually owed payments, processed through programs created under the Biden administration, have been put on pause by the Trump administration, leaving the farmers anxious about how to proceed.

    Also anxious are staff at the sustainability and conservation-focused nonprofits that provided technical support and enrollment assistance for these grants, many of whom worry that the USDA grant pause could undermine the trust they’ve carefully built with farmers over years of outreach. Though enrollment in the programs was voluntary, the grants were formulated to serve the Biden administration’s Justice40 priority of investing in underserved and minority communities. Those same communities tend to be wary of collaborating with the USDA due to its history of overlooking small and family farms, which make up 90% of the farms in the U.S. and are more likely to be women- or minority-owned, in favor of large operations, as well as its pattern of disproportionately denying loans to Black farmers. The Biden administration had counted on nonprofits to leverage their relationships with farmers in order to bring them onto the projects.

    Keep reading...Show less
    Green