Power up your day with electrifying energy, it's Wattage Wednesday! Continuing on our journey of exploring next generation reactors, today we will be looking at the Natrium technology from TerraPower, the nuclear company founded by Bill Gates. This technology consists of an advanced 345 megawatt sodium fast reactor that is fueled with 20% enriched uranium (called HALEU) instead of the more standard 5% enriched. The sodium used to cool the reactor operates at about 530 degrees celsius [~1000F], which is about 500 degrees lower than the boiling point of sodium, so no high pressure containment vessel is required like in a conventional reactor cooled by water. Coupled to the reactor is a molten salt energy storage system capable of storing extra heat produced by the reactor for later when electricity demand is low and/or renewables are overproducing. Then in periods where demand is higher the reactor can increase from 345MWe to 500MWe by tapping into this stored heat. TerraPower plan...