Bechtel and TerraPower part ways on Natrium, EPC contract goes back to tender
Serguey Asael Shinder2 min readBechtel and TerraPower have decided to move forward separately on the first-of-a-kind Natrium reactor at Kemmerer, Wyoming, and TerraPower says it will rebid the engineering, procurement and construction contract. World Nuclear News reported the split on 22 September 2026.
Bechtel had been named as design, licensing, procurement and construction partner in a federal grant application as long ago as 2020. Ground was broken on the 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor and its molten-salt energy storage system in June 2024, with official construction start announced in April 2026.
Bechtel spokeswoman Molly Edwards told WNN the company will remain on site to complete the Sodium Test and Fill Facility and support an orderly transition, and listed the work already done under an earlier phase of the contract: securing the NRC construction permit — the first issued for a commercial non-light-water reactor in the United States — completing the exterior enclosure of the Sodium Test and Fill Facility, placing major procurements, and beginning foundational work for Kemmerer Unit 1. "As we considered the next phase of the project, Bechtel and TerraPower decided to move forward separately," she said.
The split surfaced through a WARN Act notification Bechtel filed with the State of Virginia, covering around 200 positions, with reductions expected to begin on or about 16 November. Edwards said staff will move to other nuclear projects and that the company does not expect actual layoffs. TerraPower says construction will keep its current schedule and that it does not expect the change to affect the timeline; in late August it selected twelve equipment vendors for the Natrium build.
What it means
Changing the EPC contractor on a first-of-a-kind nuclear project between the foundation phase and full construction is not a routine procurement event, whatever the schedule assurances say. The contract being rebid is the one that carries the integration risk, and the party that held it has the accumulated site knowledge.
Both statements are worth reading precisely. Bechtel describes its completed work as having been performed under an earlier phase, prior to full EPC scope — which says the parties never reached agreement on the phase that matters most. TerraPower's schedule confidence rests on subcontractor teams and commercial-grade EPC support services already on site. Those can be true together, and the test of them is the rebid: who bids, on what terms, and how long it takes.