The Nuclear Regulatory Fee (NRC) has taken a historic step by voting to situation development permits for Kairos Energy’s 70-MWth Hermes 2, a “low energy” superior check facility comprising two 35-MWth molten salt reactors. “Following the Fee’s vote, Hermes 2 is now the primary electricity-producing Gen IV plant to be authorised for development in the USA,” stated Kairos Energy.
Kairos plans to construct Hermes 2 on the East Tennessee Expertise Park Heritage Heart (ETTP) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The location may even host the proposed single 35-MWth Hermes 1 check reactor, a non-nuclear engineering check unit, and doubtlessly a Kairos Energy gasoline fabrication facility.
Development on Hermes 1, a non-power demonstration reactor, started in July 2024 and is predicted to be accomplished by 2027, making it Kairos Energy’s first nuclear mission. If development of Hermes 2 proceeds on schedule, the power’s two reactors—able to a mixed electrical output of 20 MWe—might start operation by December 2027.
The NRC’s issuance of the Hermes 2 development allow represents a key milestone within the two-step CFR Half 50 licensing course of. Kairos Energy might want to apply for and safe an working license earlier than the plant can begin operations. As soon as operational, Hermes 2’s two reactors are anticipated to have a licensed lifetime of 11 years.
How Hermes 2 Suits Into Kairos’ General Iterative Technique
The licensing milestone is one other notch for the Alameda, California–headquartered engineering firm, which has been creating and advertising nuclear energy plant designs based mostly on its fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor (KP-FHR) expertise since its founding in 2016. The corporate is pursuing a notable “fast iterative improvement strategy,” which includes utilizing iterative {hardware} demonstrations and in-house manufacturing “to attain disruptive value discount and supply true value certainty for commercialization.” Underneath the stepwise strategy, Kairos can also be trying to de-risk its expertise and provide chain logistics and clear regulatory hurdles earlier than scaling to full industrial deployment.
As POWER has reported, Kairos’s KP-FHR contains a graphite-moderated, “randomly packed” pebble‐mattress reactor with molten fluoride salt coolant (a chemically secure molten fluoride salt combination of 2LiF:BeF2 [Flibe] enriched in Li‐7), working at excessive temperature and close to‐atmospheric strain. The gasoline within the KP-FHR relies on tri-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) particle gasoline in pebble kind with a carbonaceous‐matrix coated particle design.
The corporate’s focused industrial choices will embrace the KP-X Industrial Demo Plant, a single-unit, 50-MWe fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor designed to function at 650C and near-atmospheric strain, and KP-FHR Industrial Plant, a dual-unit, 150-MWe reactor configuration (2 x 75 MWe) designed for top effectivity with a 650C reactor outlet temperature. Kairos’ designs will use tri-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) particle gasoline in pebble kind with a carbonaceous‐matrix coated particle design. The gasoline will include high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) enriched at 19.74%.
In October, notably, Kairos signed a landmark Grasp Plant Growth Settlement with Google to develop a 500-MW fleet of molten salt small modular reactors (SMRs) by 2035 to energy the tech big’s information facilities, with the primary reactor anticipated to be operational by 2030. Google stated accelerating nuclear deployment is crucial to assembly surging information middle power calls for and attaining its 24/7 carbon-free power objectives by 2030. Whereas Kairos confirmed to POWER it’s planning one KP-X Industrial Demonstration Plant, it declined to disclose specifics concerning the particular person crops to be deployed underneath the pioneering take care of Google.
As a part of its distinctive iterative strategy, Kairos has kicked improvement with a sequence of Engineering Take a look at Items (ETUs), that are non-nuclear built-in checks designed to validate the efficiency of crucial techniques in a managed atmosphere. ETU 1.0, commissioned on the firm’s Albuquerque facility, operated for over 2,000 hours utilizing 12 metric tons of molten fluoride salt (Flibe) to simulate coolant movement and warmth switch at temperatures as much as 675C. Following its decommissioning following six months of operation in July 2023, Kairos initiated ETU 2.0 in Albuquerque. Its subsequent steps will entail the event of ETU 3.0 in Oak Ridge to include classes realized from earlier iterations and refine modular development methods.
The Hermes reactors characterize the subsequent part within the firm’s pathway. Hermes 1, a single-unit, non-power demonstration reactor, focuses on operational security and system integration. Constructing on its design, Hermes 2 will function two 35-MWth reactors sharing a Rankine Cycle energy conversion system with a 20 MWe capability. It can additionally add intermediate salt loops and steam superheaters.
“Hermes 2 will display full plant structure at a lowered scale and provide clear electrical energy to the grid, additional advancing expertise, licensing, provide chain, and development certainty for Kairos Energy’s industrial deployments,” the corporate stated on Wednesday.
NRC Evaluate Accomplished on an Accelerated Schedule
Lastly, as a part of its iterative strategy, Kairos has marked quite a few regulatory milestones. In December 2023, NRC granted Kairos a development allow for its 35-MWth Hermes 1 “non-power” demonstration—25 months after it accepted Kairo’s development allow software underneath 10 CFR Half 50.21 (a category of licenses for medical remedy and analysis and improvement amenities) in November 2021. The NRC’s approval for Hermes, notably, marked the federal regulator’s first inexperienced mild for the development of a non-water-cooled reactor in additional than 50 years.
Licensing for Hermes 2 has been even speedier. Whereas the NRC formally accepted Kairos’ CPA for Hermes 2 in June 2023, it issued its remaining security analysis for the permits in July 2024 and accomplished its Last Security Analysis Report (FSER) for Hermes 2 in August 2024—practically 4 months forward of schedule. In complete, from CPA acceptance to the development allow vote, the NRC course of has taken 16 months. The timeframe is a staggering achievement for the regulator, which has been traditionally thought to be notoriously gradual in its licensing processes—notably for brand spanking new or novel reactor designs—owing to its rigorous security requirements, detailed opinions, and public session necessities.
The NRC stated the environment friendly overview stemmed from a “new, streamlined necessary listening to course of” carried out through written paperwork. The fee “approved the company’s Workplace of Nuclear Reactor Regulation to situation the permits, having discovered the workers’s overview of the Hermes 2 software sufficient to make the required regulatory security and environmental findings,” it famous. NRC workers “expects to situation the permits within the close to future,” it stated.
“Whereas holding security on the forefront, the allowing course of was fairly environment friendly, and we issued these permits in lower than 18 months,” stated NRC Chair Christopher Hanson on Wednesday. “This reveals we are able to quickly apply related conclusions from earlier opinions to promptly attain choices on new reactors.”
Kairos on Wednesday advised the fast overview and approval timeline stems from Kairos’ in depth pre-application engagement with the NRC. Engagement dates “again to 2018, together with quite a few course of enhancements piloted by the primary Hermes CPA and the NRC’s new simplified necessary listening to course of,” it stated. “Extra efficiencies have been created by the similarities and co-location of the 2 Hermes iterations, which allowed the Hermes 2 software to leverage work already completed for Hermes.”
In response to Peter Hastings, Kairos vice chairman of Regulatory Affairs & High quality, the licensing foundation established by the Hermes 1 and Hermes 2 development permits “will carry ahead to future license purposes, guaranteeing the security of Kairos Energy’s deployments whereas supporting continued innovation and effectivity within the overview course of.”
Darrell Gardner, Kairos senior licensing director, described the corporate’s expertise working with the NRC as “optimistic.” The corporate’s purposes served as “a testing floor for extra environment friendly processes that may profit the whole trade,” he famous. “ Kudos to the NRC and to the whole Kairos Energy staff for one more job effectively completed,” he stated.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
