00:00Chris, who is this customer?
00:03Well, thanks for having me.
00:05And we're not ready to announce that first client yet,
00:08but I can tell you there's tremendous interest in natrium reactors here at TerraPower.
00:14And I think the interest is really driven by, you know,
00:18what we've shown is that with that first plant we're building in Wyoming,
00:23we're really the first mover in the U.S.
00:25It's the only grid-scale power station under construction.
00:30You know, in nuclear today, got the first Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval.
00:35And then, you know, what I think you also saw with our trip to Korea a couple weeks ago,
00:42you know, just massive announcements with the supply chain there.
00:46We've had great relationships with Korea going on five years now with SK being our second biggest investor,
00:54as well as HD Hyundai being part of our supply chain.
00:57But two weeks ago, we announced a framework agreement for up to eight reactors with Hyundai Engineering and Construction.
01:04And, you know, that Korean supply chain is formidable.
01:10You know, Korea has been building, South Korea has been building nuclear plants over the last decades,
01:16while the U.S. hasn't been building very many.
01:18So they're raring to go.
01:21You know, they also are committing to, you know, reach our cost and schedule targets,
01:28which for our technology means delivering Natrium reactors in just three years following groundbreaking.
01:35That's what we're validating with our design.
01:38And that's why people are so interested in Natrium for AI is the much shorter construction time that we'll be
01:46able to achieve with Natrium.
01:48Well, Chris, and just very briefly here, and I promise I want to, you know, harp on this too much
01:52about which customer this will be,
01:54but what is the reason that you're not ready to announce it?
01:57Is it because the ink hasn't dried on the agreement?
01:59There is no signed agreement.
02:01Like, what is the reason you can't announce it?
02:04Yeah.
02:05So I think it's important to realize that we're in a period now where, you know, largely driven by AI
02:12demand,
02:15utilities and AI customers, namely the hyperscalers, are entering into discussions with companies like ours to start some of these
02:24new projects.
02:25And I think you have to realize that the U.S. and Europe haven't been super successful in the past
02:31with new nuclear.
02:33So, you know, we spend a lot of time structuring these new projects.
02:38And for us, kind of the formula, the winning formula is, you know,
02:44continuing to show success in the project with that first plant in Wyoming, where we're the first mover on multiple
02:52fronts.
02:52But then it's about showing that we have a supply chain and we have an experienced supply chain who is
02:59willing to say to the utilities
03:01and to the hyperscaler customers that we'll stand behind delivery.
03:06And, you know, TerraPower and the rest of our delivery team, like HD Hyundai and Hyundai Engineering Construction,
03:14that's what we're saying to the market right now, is that, you know, not only can you look at that
03:18first plant in Wyoming
03:19and see that we're going to deliver the first nuclear plant in a long, long time and make electricity in
03:272031,
03:28but right behind that, we're going to be quickly scaling up to something like 10 reactors per year by the
03:35middle of the 2030s.
03:36Well, Chris, the one you're doing now is for utility, and that's the traditional model for nuclear power,
03:42build a power plant and have a utility take the electricity there.
03:46How is it different now that data centers and AI and big tech have entered the equation here?
03:53Yeah, thanks for the question, Will, and thanks for following TerraPower so closely over the years.
03:58You know, I grew up in New Hampshire watching the Seabrook nuclear power plant take over 10 years to get
04:05built,
04:05and it had a lot of opposition on the news every night, and it was paid for by the rate
04:13payers alone.
04:14I can remember my parents, you know, complaining about seeing this line on their electricity bill related to that nuclear
04:21power plant,
04:22and every time there was a cost change, it hit the rate payers.
04:25We're in a new era now where, you know, the White House and governors are not going to allow existing
04:36electricity rate payers,
04:37mom and pop, to pay for the CapEx of these new plants.
04:41So what you're seeing in the deals we're structuring is, yeah, the utility will be present.
04:47Again, they'll probably be running the plant when it goes online, and they may even own it.
04:52But in the deals that we're structuring, we're going to be looking for the eventual electricity customers
04:59to enter into power purchase agreements that will essentially pay for, you know, the capital expenditure for that plant.
05:07And that'll be a long-term PPA that lasts 20 to 30 years.
05:13Are data center operators willing to pay a premium for nuclear power because they need reliable power so badly?
05:21Some are raising their hand, Nora, in saying, yes, we will pay a premium both to assure that security of
05:30supply,
05:30but also to have, you know, a mission-free source like nuclear.
05:34But for a long time at TerraPower, you know, coming straight from our chairman, the goal has been to, you
05:43know,
05:43develop a power source, our natrium reactor, that will be competitive with renewables and gas.
05:51And what we've seen in our design, because, you know, our natrium reactor can be built much more quickly,
05:57requires less steel, less concrete, we have a design that, you know, once we come through our first-of-a
06:05-kind,
06:05you know, non-recurring investments, we're going to have a design that will be competitive with other energy sources.
06:11And, you know, the U.S. is the hardest place because we have cheap gas.
06:14It's the hardest place to compete with cheap electricity.
06:17So we'll be successful competing in the U.S., but then we'll have super low-cost nuclear, you know,
06:25available to, you know, countries like the U.K. or even, you know, in South Korea.
06:31We think there's, you know, tremendous demand growth there, not just from AI, but from semiconductor fabrication.
06:38And we will have a very economic power source for this century.
06:42Well, Chris, when you talk about not letting mom-and-pop ratepayer get stuck with the bill,
06:48and when we talk about big tech companies willing to pay a premium right now for nuclear,
06:53that's kind of tacitly admitting that, at least now, these first ones are not going to be cheap.
06:59They're definitely going to cost more.
07:01When do we get to this cheap nuclear power that you're talking about, and how do we get there?
07:07Yeah, you know, every business has an investment.
07:11You know, pharma, you name it, all have investments to get your product out the door.
07:16We're making that non-recurring investment right now at TerraPower with our investors, you know, like Bill Gates and SK.
07:24NVIDIA joined us as an investor last year.
07:27And that investment is being matched by the U.S. Department of Energy.
07:32That's going to allow us to deliver the first plant with the non-recurring costs covered, again, by our investors
07:40and the DOE, not by the ratepayers.
07:43We'll then, by way of, you know, these orders that are coming, be able to quickly move down, you know,
07:50the cost curve.
07:51And supplier partners like, you know, HD Hyundai, the biggest shipbuilder in Korea, and Hyundai Engineering Construction, who really has
08:01a, you know, formidable reputation,
08:04those delivery partners are going to help us quickly get down that cost curve.
08:10So how much of the conversation you're having with data center operators is about clean energy versus just simply, we
08:16need a lot of power and we need it now?
08:20It's both. I see the hyperscalers still really committed to clean energy.
08:26I also see them facing tremendous, you know, electricity demand.
08:31It's a problem they have to solve now.
08:34And it's a problem we've been trying to solve at TerraPower by driving a design that can be built much
08:40faster.
08:41Because, you know, it's true, nuclear has been a great source of electricity for the last 60 years in the
08:46U.S. and Europe.
08:47But the construction projects have just been too long.
08:51So I think the reason TerraPower is getting a lot of attention right now is, you know, we're turning heads
08:55that we're actually building the thing in Wyoming.
08:57And then we're validating that we can deliver these things on a 36-month construction schedule once you break ground.
09:05So you're talking about being able to do 10 power plants a year.
09:09When do we get there?
09:10Yeah, by the mid-2030s, Will.
09:12And, you know, that'll be a huge change.
09:15But, you know, I really have to hand it to companies like HD Hyundai.
09:19Chairman Chung there turned to Bill Gates and I, and he said, you know, we build up to 100 ships
09:24a year in our shipyard.
09:26You know, let us show you how to scale.
09:28He said normally nuclear does things one or two at a time.
09:31And we're really seeing in our five-year relationship with HD Hyundai, they're providing design input to us.
09:39They're showing us how to get the cost down and really how to scale to that kind of delivery rate.
09:45We're going to make sure that we're going to make sure that we're going to make sure that we're going
09:45to make sure that we're going to make sure that we're going to make sure that we're going to make
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09:45we're going to make sure that we're going to make sure that we're going to make sure that we're going
09:45to make sure that we're going to make sure that we're going to make sure that we're going to make
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09:45we're going to make sure that we're going to
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