怀俄明庆祝“核能复兴”：联邦批准新建核反应堆

Kemmerer, WYO — The infamous Wyoming wind is whipping an American flag hoisted above the construction site of what's only the fourth nuclear reactor to be built in the U.S. this century, and one of the first in a new generation of advanced designs."We're building an advanced nuclear plant but so many aspects of the plant and of the business are the same as the sixty-year-old coal plant that's down the road," says Chris Levesque, Terra Power's CEO, as he gestures to the west where the old Naughton plant stands.The Washington state-based Terra Power, founded by Bill Gates, says this will be the first of many, part of a new nuclear renaissance they want to bring to long time energy exporting states like Wyoming. Levesque says the company's "advanced reactor" technology makes nuclear plants safer and quicker to build."There is an energy crisis, it's concerning," Levesque says.The recent beginning of construction here comes amid forecasts that an artificial intelligence boom means that data centers in the U.S. are going to need about 130% more energy by 2030. That's according to the International Energy Agency.To help meet that demand, Big tech companies and the federal government are partnering to invest billions of dollars in new nuclear power plants.Nuclear boosters think its NIMBYism problem is in the pastThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave Terra Power final approval to begin construction in March. This capped five years of studies and safety demonstrations and a decision to site the plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming which won bids over numerous other western towns."There is a whole different story to begin with, is communities vying for a nuclear power plant," Levesque says. "The old story on nuclear was more of a 'not in my backyard thing.'"Levesque, who came to Terra Power after a career in the legacy nuclear industry, thinks new technologies and demand for low emission power is changing this. Almost everything here will be buried underground and they'll use liquid sodium metal instead of water to cool the reactor."Milestones like this really show people that, yeah, this is a new technology but we're doing it," he says. "It's real and people can start to work this into their plans."If all goes to plan and the plant is online by 2031, Terra Power says it will make enough electricity for a utility to power almost half a million homes - likely in nearby Salt Lake City. The company has also inked agreements with META for several more reactors to power the tech company's data centers specifically."Since we were selected by the Department of Energy, we've had a project going for five years that's switched administrations, switched parties, switched multiple controls of Congress," Levesque says.Rocky Mountain states join the race to win DOE nuclear hubsA recent press release from the company marking the beginning of full-scale construction in Kemmerer included quotes praising the project from Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon and the state's entire congressional delegation.The Department of Energy pilot program that spurred Terra Power's first project began during the first Trump administration. Then, the Biden-administration's Infrastructure Law fronted half of the costs of construction, about two billion dollars.Wyoming's Republican Senators voted against that bill. But the state is eagerly courting nuclear energy plants and new uranium mines. So is neighboring Idaho, home to a federal nuclear lab, and Utah, where Governor Spencer Cox recently staged a press conference in the barren scrubland west of Salt Lake City."If you are serious about energy abundance, you have to be serious about nuclear energy," Cox said, as he went on to unveil Utah's application to be one of the U.S. Department of Energy's new nuclear hubs.It's billed as a "nuclear life cycle innovation campus" where they'd enrich nuclear fuel, recycle it and store its waste, including one day possibly that generated by the Kemmerer plant.Cox noted that nuclear already supplies roughly a fifth of all the electricity on the U.S. grid."This should not be controversial," the Republican says. "America built the nuclear industry."Some environmentalists question how green nuclear isBut nuclear still is controversial, especially in the West with its legacy of abandoned uranium mines and radioactive waste particularly in Indian Country. And Salt Lake City was downwind from Cold War Era nuclear weapons test sites."This area has been considered a sacrifice zone for a long time," says Lexi Tuddenham, executive director of Healthy Environment Alliance Utah, or HEAL.Tuddenham is alarmed that Utah wants to site its proposed nuclear hub some ten miles from the western shore of the drying Great Salt Lake. She says nuclear is being rebranded as green but that ignores the ongoing problem of where to store its radioactive waste."Bill Gates is paying for this first one, we as taxpayers are also paying for this first one, I will say," Tuddenham says. "But what about the next one and the next one? How much are we going to be on the hook for as taxpayers, as rate payers, as we go down this path?"Terra Power says like conventional nuclear reactors, its plant in Wyoming will store its spent fuel on site until a permanent repository is approved by the feds. They say it's safe and the "advanced nuclear" tech produces less waste than legacy plants.An old coal town is eager for a nuclear rebirthIn Wyoming, the country's top coal producing state, one thing that's not in dispute is that Kemmerer is eager for any sort of energy boom. When the West Coast divested from coal, national headlines all but wrote off this town of 3,000 as dying."That's what we were concerned about is no longer being an exporter of power, cause that's a majority of our jobs," says Brian Muir, city administrator in Kemmerer.But today he says there's relief and optimism around town. Hundreds of skilled jobs are being created. Due to the high demand for electricity, the old coal plant isn't completely shutting either. Some of its generators are being converted to natural gas which will preserve about 100 existing jobs."I'll just say, when Bill Gates came here, he talked about our high energy IQ," Muir says. "We know about all forms of energy and the benefits and the costs and the risks and the footprints and all of that, we understand that."Muir says Kemmerer is already lobbying Terra Power to build a second nuclear plant here.

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST: A panel of judges in Louisiana has ended telemedicine access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Yesterday's ruling applies nationally and goes into effect immediately. It's likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Already, one company that makes the drug has filed for an emergency stay. NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin joins us. Selena, thanks for being with us.SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Good morning, Scott.SIMON: And first, what was the Louisiana case about?SIMMONS-DUFFIN: The case was brought by the state against the Food and Drug Administration. Their argument centered around the FDA's decision to remove an in-person requirement for patients receiving mifepristone, one of the medications used for abortion and the management of miscarriages. For decades, patients had to physically go to a clinic or a doctor's office and get the medicine. FDA changed that in 2023 so patients could have the doctor's visit online or over the phone and then receive the medication in the mail.Louisiana has an abortion ban. They argued that FDA allowing mifepristone through the mail undermined their ban. A district court judge put the case on hold in April. Louisiana appealed that decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. And a panel of judges on that court agreed with the state, which means that telemedicine access to mifepristone has just ended for the whole country, effective immediately.SIMON: What does this ruling mean across the country?SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yeah. You know, this is a really big deal. First of all, a decision from a panel of judges in New Orleans changed how Americans all over the country can access an FDA-approved medication. That's unprecedented. In terms of abortion access, this severely restricts access in states with abortion bans. But it also affects people in states like California, Maryland, Massachusetts, who have come to rely on telemedicine too. In the almost four years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, telemedicine abortion has grown. It's a big part of the reason why the overall number of abortions hasn't gone down at all nationally, despite the state bans.Mifepristone has been found to be safe by FDA. It's been used by something like 7 million patients since it was approved in 2000. And doctors say the in-person requirement is not medically necessary, but now that requirement is back. There is a medication abortion protocol that uses only misoprostol, which is another medication, so doctors could pivot to providing that through telemedicine instead. It's just really hard to know how this is going to go. It's just happened so quickly.SIMON: Selena, I gather you've talked to many people who've used telemedicine to get mifepristone. What have you learned?SIMMONS-DUFFIN: You know, one significant thing is that telemedicine has become key for access in remote and rural areas all over the country. I talked to a woman named Julia (ph). We're not using her last name because she fears professional repercussions for sharing her story. In 2024, she lived in a remote part of California, in the Sierra Nevadas.JULIA: I was pregnant. Was not planned. Did not want to keep it.SIMMONS-DUFFIN: It was winter, and she was in an area where roads were often unsafe. There were possible landslides. There were no OB-GYNs nearby. So she used Planned Parenthood remotely and received the medication in the mail along with instructions.JULIA: It was very, very clear, easy to understand. I never, like, was unsure of what to expect.SIMMONS-DUFFIN: She says she's really grateful she had that option.SIMON: And, Selena, we have to ask - in coming up to the midterm elections, are there political implications?SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Oh, yes. Democrats have come out swinging after the appeals court decision. Washington Senator Patty Murray called it, quote, "infuriating and infantilizing." Many Republicans celebrated this decision. The Trump administration did not respond to my request for comment by airtime. President Trump has been pretty understated on abortion this term, and anti-abortion advocates have noticed and called for him to be more forceful. Here's Mary Ziegler. She's an expert in the legal history of abortion at UC Davis.MARY ZIEGLER: This is the most consequential - potentially, in some ways - ruling we've had since Dobbs from a lower court. And that's going to require every politician to weigh in, and it doesn't really leave the Trump administration the option of doing nothing anymore.SIMMONS-DUFFIN: She says this decision is going to send shockwaves through medicine, through politics, and we're just at the beginning.SIMON: NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin, thanks so much.SIMMONS-DUFFIN: You're welcome.

※ 出于版权考虑，仅引用前 3 段。完整内容请阅读原文。