American taxpayers are providing $2 billion to help billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett build an experimental nuclear power plant outside Kemmerer, Wyoming — a remote coal town where residents remain sharply divided over whether the project represents economic salvation or corporate welfare at public expense.
TerraPower's Natrium project, which aims to begin generating electricity within four years, is receiving equal funding from the company and taxpayers to construct what designers call a first-of-its-kind small-scale reactor. The public-private partnership is part of the Trump administration's broader push to build dozens of new nuclear reactors to power data centers and manufacturers, though critics question why wealthy backers need government assistance to complete their ventures.
A Community Split Between Hope and Skepticism
The project is bringing thousands of construction workers to the area and boosting local businesses including Fossil Fuel Coffee Co., the Super 8 motel and Scroungy Moose Pizza. It's happening as coal mines head for closure and good-paying jobs grow scarce. But the economic promise hasn't unified the town.
"I would say our community is split," said Janet Lively, 41, assistant manager at Fossil Fuel Coffee Co. "You're either opposed to it or in favor."
Charlotte Sherbeyn, 59, welcomes the economic activity but opposes the project itself. She doesn't understand why billionaires like Gates need public funding. "I'm just not a huge Bill Gates fan," she said. "He only cares about him. It's just a dollar sign to him." She also worries a nuclear meltdown at the Natrium plant could trigger a broader catastrophe, given the coal and natural gas beneath the ground and the Yellowstone Caldera 260 miles north. "If that blows up," she said, "we're done."
The project promises about 1,600 temporary construction jobs that will ultimately give way to as many as 300 permanent positions for running the power plant, according to Natrium.
Workers and Jobs in Transition
Michelle Pollard, 61, a Kemmerer coal mine employee, has lived and breathed the coal mine for 35 years. "I love it," she said. "But you have to change with the times and I'm glad they picked Kemmerer." She added, "Things have to evolve. You have to change with the times. And I, too, like clean energy."
Pollard has been impressed with the quality of engineers and workers TerraPower has hired. She's comfortable Gates has the best interests of people at heart, pointing to his multiple visits to the project as evidence of earnest commitment. Since going down to part-time at the mine, Pollard has opened "3 ZERO 7 Place" soda shop, a reference to the state's sole area code. "Kemmerer is kind of used to boom and bust," she said. "You can't have growth without some short-term pain."
The Nuclear Renaissance and Its Critics
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement, "America's nuclear renaissance is underway because of President Trump's bold vision and ambitious goals," adding that "Advanced nuclear technologies ... will help power the next generation of American industry, strengthen our energy security, and ensure the United States remains the world's nuclear innovation leader."
TerraPower President and CEO Chris Levesque said, "This really is the beginning of a whole new era of nuclear energy." He said the company plans to build more than a hundred of these reactors around the world. "What changed about 10 years ago was with the concern about climate and CO2 emissions, a lot of liberal folks, a lot of especially young liberals, really got interested in nuclear," he said, noting that nuclear had "this great safety record" while older generations had grown up with stigma from the 1970s.
But Edwin Lyman, a physicist and director of nuclear power safety for the Union of Concerned Scientists, sharply disagreed. "My No. 1 concern is that this push is not being inspired by genuine innovation in nuclear power or any perceived interest in nuclear power by the public," he said. "It's being driven by ideology that somehow nuclear power hasn't gotten its due, and that's because the government has been over-regulating it, that the dangers have been overstated, and that's what's been holding it back."
Lyman added, "The fact is the industry doesn't have a good track record, and they blame everyone else for their own poor performance. And, unfortunately, those issues are being overlooked in this new political push for nuclear power." He later said, "It's a sign that the industry and the Trump administration are not seriously confronting these issues in a way that's sustainable. That doesn't bode well. You can fool some people, but you can't fool Mother Nature."
Construction Underway in Coal Country
Workers began preparing the non-nuclear parts of the facility in June 2024 and broke ground on the nuclear site in April. Contractors are also finishing a towering testing and fueling facility. The reactor building isn't yet under construction, and there's no nuclear fuel on the site yet. USA TODAY received an exclusive site tour with Levesque in May. Managers explained safety protocols for construction workers, the nuclear fuel and the community, highlighted efforts to protect Native American sites and nesting birds, and showed the testing facility where workers will help develop pumps to move molten metal from the reactor to the generator turbine.
The site sits just outside Kemmerer, where coal helped build the state and today powers a significant portion of Wyoming's economy. About 4% of all jobs are either directly or indirectly linked to coal mining. Trump won Lincoln County, home to Kemmerer, with 83.5% of the vote in 2024. The state exports 60% of the electricity it generates. Several coal-fired power plants are owned by Buffett's PacifiCorp, which has 2.1 million customers across six western states.
The Natrium reactor uses a special kind of refined uranium that's more concentrated than typical nuclear fuels, but still weaker than what's used for bombs. Wyoming is home to large uranium deposits that state leaders hope can one day power reactors across the country. About 100 reactors are still operating from the nuclear expansion of the 1960s and 1970s, and nuclear power still provides about 20% of the country's electricity. The 1979 partial meltdown at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island, the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown and the 2011 Fukushima leak helped sustain public fear of nuclear energy.
TerraPower said the Natrium reactor represents a significant public-private partnership in which the company and taxpayers are contributing equally. "This partnership was created to help build out this new industry in order to scale a fleet of new reactors and unleash American nuclear power at a time when it's needed most," the company said. "To meet this demand, we must build and scale the entire next-generation nuclear industry, which means we need a fleet of power plants, a domestic fuel supply, a robust supply chain and a trained workforce."
Four other new small-scale test nuclear reactors recently demonstrated success at the Idaho National Laboratory to meet Trump's self-imposed July 4 deadline to mark the country's 250th birthday.
Why This Matters:
The Kemmerer project crystallizes fundamental questions about energy transition, public investment and who benefits when taxpayers underwrite corporate ventures. Workers in coal communities face real economic pressure as mines close, making them vulnerable to promises that may or may not materialize. The commitment of $2 billion in public funds to assist billionaire-backed ventures raises accountability concerns, particularly when permanent jobs number only 300 compared to 1,600 temporary construction positions. Safety experts' warnings about regulatory rollbacks and industry accountability deserve serious consideration, especially given the historical track record that includes Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. How communities navigate energy transitions — whether workers receive adequate support, whether safety concerns get addressed transparently, and whether public investments yield broadly shared benefits — will shape similar decisions in dozens of towns across America facing the same pressures Kemmerer confronts today.