This year, the Kansas Department of Commerce and Evergy began talks with TerraPower, a nuclear energy company based out of Washington state, to potentially bring a reactor to the Sunflower State. TerraPower’s Natrium reactor is different from a traditional nuclear reactor like at Wolf Creek. The small modular reactor uses sodium as its primary coolant instead of water. “It’s ability is to retain the heat that comes off the reactor core for a long period of time,” State Rep. Mark Schreiber of Emporia said. “It doesn’t need to be pressurized, so that reduces the amount of the equipment that’s needed to be inside the containment building. And then if the reactor, for instance, shuts down, it still has that heat that can still create steam on the secondary side of the system and power the generator.” Schreiber said over the next 10 years, the Midwest will need to scale up its power generation. The demand for data centers, electric vehicle chargers and new manufacturing is expected to rise as older power plants go offline. He believes the Sunflower State’s central location makes it a perfect spot to build a Natrium reactor.
Read more: KSN-TV
