< PreviousA year after receiving approval from the NRC for the construction of the $100 million Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor, Kairos Power is now in the midst of build-out at the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge. The nation’s first Gen IV reactor and first non-light-water reactor to receive approval in over 50 years, the site aims to produce affordable nuclear heat by 2027. Building upon the knowledge and experience gained through an Engineering Testing Unit at Kairos’ site in New Mexico, this project will deliver the company’s first ever nuclear build. The fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor will harness technologies combining tristructural- isotropic (TRISO) coated particle fuel and Flibe molten fluoride salt coolant to safely simplify the reactor’s design. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been a key player in making this technology accessible for companies like Kairos Power. Since 2002, ORNL’s Coated Particle Fuel Development Lab has worked to advance the nation’s capabilities for fabrication and characterization of TRISO particle fuel. “The real goal in developing TRISO fuels is to provide a fuel form that’s very robust and resilient, that can operate under a huge range of conditions and reduce the risk of any kind of release of radioactive material in an accident,” says Oak Ridge National Laboratory Nuclear Energy and Fuel Cycle Division Director David Pointer. “Those drivers have led to a fuel form that can be applied to produce a lot of different end goals. Whether you want to produce electricity or heat that can be used to operate industrial facilities, it provides opportunities to do both.” Kairos Power evaluated several sites across the nation for the project. Kairos Power CEO and Co-founder Mike Laufer says the site selection process came down to desirable attributes such as the opportunity to collaborate with ORNL and the ability to tap into the Tennessee Valley Authority’s extensive nuclear expertise and the A YEAR OF FIRSTS FOR KAIROS POWER SITE SELECTION JANUARY 2025 107 University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s strong engineering program. With the November 2024 approval by the NRC of a Hermes 2 Demonstration Plant investment approved, Kairos Power will additionally construct the nation’s first nuclear electricity-producing Gen IV plant. The Hermes 2 facility will house two 35-megawatt thermal test reactors and a shared power generation system, located 18 minutes away from the Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor site at the Heritage Center Industrial Park. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says operational data gathered here will be vital to future development of a larger version for commercial electricity production. “We need all options on the table to address the threat of climate change. Nuclear energy is a potent decarbonization tool that complements renewable sources like wind and solar,” says Laufer. With all this activity, Kairos Power caught the attention of Google, which plans to partner with the company to deploy 500 MW of nuclear power projects in the U.S. by 2035. This move marks the world’s first corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy from multiple small modular reactors (SMRs). “Google has a deep understanding of Kairos Power’s novel approach built on iterative technology demonstration and in-house manufacturing,” says Laufer. “By coming alongside in the development phase, Google is not just a customer; they’re a partner that sees our potential and will play a role in our success.” Kairos Power plans to handle the development, construction and operations of a number of advanced reactor plants in proximity to Google data centers starting in 2030. The company will sell energy, ancillary services and environmental attributes to Google through Power Purchase Agreements. “Kairos Power’s innovative agreement with Google for multiple reactors of the same design will catalyze new nuclear deployment in the U.S. and expand access to clean energy that is safe, reliable, and affordable,” says Laufer. “The scale of what we are trying to accomplish is daunting, and it will require a lot of hard work to make it a reality. But we believe Kairos Power’s approach is the right one to realize advanced nuclear’s full potential to transform our energy landscape.” — Alexis ElmoreNext >