U.S. Photonics lands deal with Bill Gates' company

The work a Springfield research and development firm is performing for a company led by one of the wealthiest businessmen in the world is crucial to the success of a $5 billion prototype project.

U.S. Photonics Inc. is under contract with Bellevue Wash.-based TerraPower, a next-generation nuclear reactor developer backed by Bill Gates, to develop a novel method for manufacturing environmentally friendly nuclear components.

U.S. Photonics, a manufacturer of microscopic machinery serving the biomedical, semiconductor and defense industries, is currently in the middle of a multiphase project with for-profit TerraPower – where Gates serves as chairman of the board. The work aims to support TerraPower’s traveling wave reactor, which targets a low-cost and safe form of carbon-free energy.

U.S. Photonics President Jacob Conner said the research feeds into a nuclear reactor design engineered to run on depleted uranium – the leftovers after most of the powerful uranium 235 isotope has been removed. He said the work has important environmental implications – enter philanthropist Gates, who has a vision to cut global emissions to nil by 2050 – because the vast majority of mined uranium is wasted.

“We have a lot of it all over the world,” Conner said, noting the TerraPower project is working to capture the natural uranium cast aside by those who extract the uranium 235 isotope, as well as the wasted uranium burned in traditional reactors. “Both of those offer usable fuel for the traveling wave reactor.”

Traditional nuclear reactors utilize uranium 235, a form derived from enriched uranium, the largest fraction of which contains uranium 238. TerraPower is seeking to convert uranium 238 into plutonium for use in its traveling wave reactor, a technology that breeds fuel by burning a cylinder of uranium, Conner said, comparing it to a candle.

“The uranium 238 doesn’t directly burn in the reaction, but it would be converted into plutonium and used up as it goes. So, it travels in a wave from one end of the reactor to the other,” Conner said.

With work taking place at the Jordan Valley Innovation Center and the company’s headquarters on East Kearney Street, U.S. Photonic’s role is to develop special equipment and conduct research for the TerraPower concept.

“What we’re working on is one of the key problems to making this whole thing work,” Conner said. “We can’t depend on fossil fuels and consumable, nonrenewable energy sources forever. So, to have something that is available, and plentiful, that can provide long-term energy, that could really change the world.”

Kevan Weaver, TerraPower’s director of technology integration, said the nuclear company drew the attention of Microsoft Chairman Gates about seven years ago when it operated under the name Intellectual Ventures. Gates, whom he described as a key investor, became involved because he believes access to low-cost energy is a key component in the fight against poverty.

“If you could pick one thing to lower the price of – to reduce poverty – by far, you would pick energy,” Gates said in a 2010 TED Conference. “Advanced civilization is based on advances in energy.”

In Gates’ TED Talk, he said climate changes due to carbon emissions could have a far-reaching negative impact on the poorest people in the world by changing weather patterns. One of his goals through TerraPower is to bring global carbon emissions to near zero by 2050. According to TerraPower.com, the nuclear reactor it is developing could utilize enough nuclear waste to supply the entire U.S. with energy for 800 years.

Development and design is expected to cost more than $1 billion, and the price tag would be $5 billion for the entire cost of the prototype plant, Weaver said. The prototype is on track to be developed by the mid-2020s, meaning a long-term relationship with U.S. Photonics is likely.

U.S. Photonics has worked with TerraPower for about 18 months, and it is currently near completing a vital first phase of the project, Conner said. A six-month second phase is scheduled, and a planned third phase could take up to two years.

“This project has taken a big portion of our time, but it hasn’t been enough to justify adding on more people,” Conner said.

Company officials declined to disclose financial terms or other details in the agreement, citing the project’s nondisclosure contract.