5-10 years nuclear time means 10-20 I real time, it's a simple conversion really. Of course that is if it's not cancelled...

No way this gets commercialized in 10 years. The NRC page [1] states that the Natrium project is in the preapplication phase. In the case of NuScale, the approval took 6 years from the application time, and that was a pressurized water reactor, that the NRC has plenty of experience with. Compared to that, the NRC has virtually zero experience with sodium cooled reactors; one can claim that the precursor of the NRC, the AEC had such experience, but probably no employee from those times is still alive, let alone currently employed.

So the pre-application, application and approval process will be one of learning as much for the NRC as for Terrapower. If they get it done in the next 10 years, that's a stunning achievement. And only after that Terrapower will start working on the actual commercial reactors.

This is a very long haul enterprise.

But if they get it done, this can change the nuclear industry. Russia already has 2 such reactors working, and this month they started burning fuel derived from nuclear waste in one of them. These reactors achieve a lot of things: no need for pressure vessel, can burn U-238, so basically the uranium reserves become unlimited, produce much less waste, and can even burn waste. The first of these is by far the most important, because it means they can be made for much cheaper.

[1] https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-...