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Bill Gates, China talking about jointly developing nuclear reactor
- harrylove 15y agoThis is what TerraPower is building: http://www.terrapower.com/Technology/TravelingWaveReactor.aspx http://www.terrapower.com/Technology/TravelingWaveReactor.as... Here's Bill Gates' TED talk from February 2010 in which he describes the tech http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates.html http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates.html
- cr4zy 15y agoGates implies liquid approaches to nuclear are hard compared to TerraPower 23 mins into the TED talk. Liquid as in LFTR (Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactor)?
- umarmung 15y agoYes, he's trying to wean China off molten salt reactor development, specifically reactors like the LFTR. China is basically the only market for fission reactors left. They are the only ones purchasing new external nuclear reactor technology as well as aggressively pursuing their own. Bill Gates realises if China produces anything successfully independent from the West, then even if TWR functioned and functioned well, it would be a dead investment from a market (and personal legacy) perspective.
- cr4zy 15y agoAre you saying there's a conflict of interest between finding the best solution and preserving his investment/legacy?
- igravious 15y agoI am so conflicted :( I loathe Microsoft but I *love what Bill G is doing philanthropically. Like I saw a great program[1] with Ian Hislop on BBC2 recently partly about this Victorian banker in Britain who was a notorious skinflint all his life, amassed a fortune and then built decent housing for the poor with the lot of his wealth. The mind boggles. 1: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/23/ian-hislop-when-bankers-were-good http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/23/ian-hislop-when-... edit: Enough with the hate already. This is the reason i stopped coming to this site, you can't say anything outside the party line.
- sliverstorm 15y agoYou needn't be conflicted. Bill Gates != Microsoft. He left years ago. Besides, Microsoft has been making some pretty good products recently.
- 1010011010 15y agoNo he didn't. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/ http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/
- alapshah 15y agoYes, he is Chairman, but not involved on a day-to-day basis. Note that in the link you posted the most recent article wrt microsoft and bill gates is in June 2008 If he was really running the show I think things would be very different (ie they wouldn't have f'd nearly everything up like ballmer has)
- 1010011010 15y agoYou're right. He's "only" the Chairman.
- jbm 15y agoKim Il Sung is also the eternal president of North Korea, but I doubt he is having a direct impact on the governance of the country. It is a ceremonial position; no doubt he has some impact (it was implied that he was one of the reasons Microsoft didn't pursue Courier if I recall correctly) but he probably isn't involved in anything beyond vague larger-scale strategies.
- igravious 15y agoIt doesn't matter. My point was that at one point in his life he was intimately part of a decision making structure that killed some great companies like Borland and Netscape to name but two. And now he seems to be Mr. Awesome. That I find bizarre. It's a bit like the early and late Wittgenstein, something has happened to the man.
- 1010011010 15y agoPresumably because one cannot test a nuclear reactor in the US -- at least not as easily as it can be done in China.
- neutronicus 15y agoHuh. My TA from my senior design project works for TerraPower now. Small world.
- dantheman 15y agoI hope we'll see more and more of this type of development, it's pitiful that nuclear technology has stalled in the US.
- andyl 15y agoThe TerraPower design is really interesting - hope it is successful. China is also developing Thorium reactors. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8393984/Safe-nuclear-does-exist-and-China-is-leading-the-way-with-thorium.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_prit...) Safe/cheap nuclear would make such an impact - I'm happy to see developments - though I wish they were coming at a faster pace.
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- MikeCapone 15y agoI wish he would also support LFTR thorium reactors so that if this doesn't work as well as expected, there's a plan B for cheap and safe nuclear power.
- drhowarddrfine 15y agoThere is just something wrong about this and I can't articulate it.
- drhowarddrfine 15y agoThen I guess I will articulate it. While there are so many of us out of work and starving, Gates has no problems pumping millions into Africa and China. Africans have never shown the ability to stand on their own two feet and China is not our friend. THAT is what's wrong with this.
- wluu 15y agoBill Gates talks about energy (including Nuclear), and investments in the sector here (about 20 mins long) - http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Topics/Energy/Nuclear-Energy-After-Fukushima http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Topics/Energy/Nuclear-Energy-Af... He mentions his investment and interest in Terrapower briefly towards the end. And another article about Gates' visit to China last year - http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Personal/In-China-Speeding-Toward-the-Future http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Personal/In-China-Speeding-Towa...
- pjscott 15y agoThis makes sense. Bill Gates wants cheap, clean, reliable energy. Nuclear fits the bill. China is the place where nuclear energy happens these days. What's he supposed to do, wrestle with the regulators in the US? The red tape here is horrendous.
- socially-distnt 15y agoYep, makes perfect sense: develop a cheap, cost-effective nuclear reactor design with someone who is a big competitor to the US, and who our children will most likely have to fight a war against. Yeah, perfect sense.
- drhowarddrfine 15y agoYes. China is not our friend and the US owes them billions. Yet Gates is pumping millions into their economic future. China can stand on their own two feet. Let them make their own effort.
- marknutter 15y agoA rising tide lifts all ships. He's also pumping millions into eradicating disease in third world countries. Should "let them make their own effort?" The US is shooting itself in the foot with its attitudes toward nuclear power.
- drhowarddrfine 15y agoThat's my point about "eradicating disease". How many decades and billions of dollars have been poured into Africa with no success? How many free notebook computers have been handed out by smiley billionaires? It's a fable people love to tell.
- teyc 15y agoIt is a win-win. China gets to be first (and Thorium reactor products cannot be easily weaponized), US gets to use China as a proving ground, and then the US regulators themselves are pressured to change their attitudes, which then creates a market for TerraPower.
- umarmung 15y ago"China gets to be first (and Thorium reactor products cannot be easily weaponized)" You do realise that Bill Gates owns and backs an opposing technology? Hint: it is not thorium based.
- teyc 15y agoI stand corrected.
- coob 15y agoWould it matter if they could be weaponised, seeing as China already has nukes?
- ypcx 15y agoAccept no less than Zero-point energy. Everything else is a distraction, and an attempt to sustain the old models with implicit consumer control. Educate yourself, start here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0525952047/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0525952047/ (seriously, it's a great read, with all references to the original research works)
- ypcx 15y agoJust -2 for such a heresy?
- danmaz74 15y agoInterestingly, TerraPower was launched by noted patent troll Intellectual Ventures [1], a company which Microsoft might have a stake in [2]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_wave_reactor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_wave_reactor [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_Ventures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_Ventures
- denzil_correa 15y agoChina's Isn't Building a Traveling Wave Nuclear Plant (Yet) Rumors of a partnership between TerraPower and China aren't true. http://www.technologyreview.in/blog/energy/27395/ http://www.technologyreview.in/blog/energy/27395/