Development of Hermes, Kairos Energy’s 35-MWth iterative non-power demonstration molten salt nuclear reactor, has formally kicked off in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The trouble marks one other main step for the burgeoning superior nuclear business, which celebrated the groundbreaking of TerraPower’s Kemmerer 1, a pioneering sodium-cooled quick reactor demonstration, in June.
Web site work and excavation for the Hermes demonstration kicked off earlier this month on the East Tennessee Expertise Park Heritage Middle (ETTP) website in Oak Ridge, spearheaded by heavy civil development agency Barnard Development Co., Kairos, introduced on July 30.
When accomplished as anticipated in 2027, Hermes will grow to be Kairos Energy’s first nuclear construct. The demonstration reactor is a part of the Alameda, California–primarily based engineering firm’s notable “speedy iterative improvement strategy” to growing and advertising and marketing nuclear energy plant designs primarily based on its fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor (KP-FHR) know-how.
From ETUs to Hermes: Testing Paves the Method for Industrial Deployment
Kairos anticipates a KP-FHR business reactor may grow to be operational within the early 2030s. As POWER has reported, Kairos’s KP-FHR options 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). The KP-FHR is designed to function at excessive temperatures and close to‐atmospheric stress, utilizing tri-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) particle gas in pebble type with a carbonaceous‐matrix coated particle design.
Kairos has thus far made substantial progress on a sequence of Engineering Check Items (ETUs), that are non-nuclear, unenriched Flibe-wetted and isothermal built-in assessments at the corporate’s KP-Southwest analysis and improvement facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The corporate can be already producing Flibe for the ETU program at its June 2022–commissioned Molten Salt Purification Plant (MSPP) at specialty supplies firm Materion’s campus in Elmore, Ohio.
On July 1, ETU 1.0 started decommissioning after six months—greater than 2,000 hours—of pumped salt operations utilizing 12 metric tons of Flibe. The learnings from the check unit will inform the design, development, and operation of the Hermes reactor and future deployments. Not too long ago, it additionally kicked off ETU 2.0 in Albuquerque, which is able to show modular development.
Work to construct the ultimate ETU iteration, ETU 3.0 has additionally begun beneath a collaboration between Barnard and Kairos. ETU 3.0 might be constructed on the ETTP website in Oak Ridge, the place the Hermes demonstration reactor is now beneath development. ETU 3.0, one other non-nuclear demonstration “will generate provide chain, development, and operational expertise to tell the Hermes venture,” Kairos stated on Tuesday. “This iterative strategy will permit classes realized from ETU 3.0 civil development to switch seamlessly to the Hermes facility.”
“Constructing on classes realized from the Engineering Check Unit program, Hermes’ major goal might be to show Kairos Energy’s capability to provide reasonably priced nuclear warmth. Hermes is not going to produce electrical energy,” Kairos famous.
Nevertheless, Hermes, a 35-MWth thermal reactor, will, just like the KP-FHR, use TRISO containing excessive assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), configured as a pebble mattress with molten fluoride salt coolant. The check reactor is meant to offer operational information to help the event of a bigger model for business deployment.
Kairos has in the meantime launched into growing the subsequent iteration, Hermes 2, a two-unit demonstration that may comprise two 35-MWth check reactors that share a steam-powered (Rankine Cycle) conversion system. Like Hermes, Hermes 2 will use TRISO-fueled pebbles in Flibe, however it is going to produce a mixed electrical output of 20 MWe through an built-in steam-powered (Rankine Cycle) conversion system. Hermes 2, set to be deployed in Oak Ridge on the identical website as the primary Hermes demonstration, will “additional de-risk know-how, development, provide chain, and licensing for a multi-reactor plant,” Kairos has stated.
Permits for First Non-Water-Cooled Reactor in A long time
As a part of its iterative strategy, Kairos has marked quite a few regulatory milestones. In December 2023, the NRC granted Kairos a development allow for its 35-MWth Hermes “non-power” demonstration. The NRC’s approval for Hermes, notably, marked its first inexperienced mild for the development of a non-water-cooled reactor in additional than 50 years. The NRC accepted Kairos’ development allow software for Hermes 1 in November 2021. Kairos is now awaiting a separate approval for an NRC working license earlier than it could possibly start working the Hermes demonstration to adjust to the two-step 10 CFR Half 50 licensing course of.
In June 2023, in the meantime, the NRC formally accepted for evaluation a development allow software (CPA) for the subsequent iteration, Hermes 2, the two-unit demonstration that might produce “low-power” electrical energy. The NRC final week wrapped up its remaining security analysis for Hermes 2 final week, “almost 4 months forward of schedule, and utilizing about 60% fewer sources than anticipated,” the regulatory physique famous.
Kairos is notably additionally pioneering a novel performance-based, fixed-price milestone funding strategy to help the design, development, and commissioning of its 35-MWth Hermes demonstration. In February 2024, the agency secured a $303 million funding settlement from the Division of Vitality (DOE), the place the corporate will obtain fastened funds upon reaching important venture milestones. The technique might be applied beneath a Expertise Funding Settlement (TIA) between Kairos and the DOE as a part of the DOE’s Superior Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) danger discount award. Introduced in December 2020, the ARDP award’s whole worth for the Hermes venture over seven years is $629 million, with $303 million, or about 48%, coming from the DOE.
A Collaborative Effort
Kairos has developed Hermes as a part of a considerable collaborative effort, with companions that embrace Hermes is a joint effort by Kairos Energy and its companions, together with Oak Ridge Nationwide Laboratory, Idaho Nationwide Laboratory, EPRI, and Materion Corp. “As well as, Kairos Energy is partnering with Los Alamos Nationwide Laboratory to produce TRISO pebble gas for Hermes within the lab’s Low-Enriched Gas Fabrication Facility. Kairos Energy has additionally established a cooperative improvement settlement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to offer engineering, operations, and licensing help for Hermes,” the corporate famous on Tuesday.
Huge milestone for superior nuclear within the US. Congratulations Kairos Energy! It is a key step on the trail in the direction of commercializing the know-how. Superior nuclear know-how is what America’s clear power future seems like. https://t.co/wbhPwDfCeR
— Tennessee Valley Authority (@TVAnews) July 30, 2024
The milestone can be particularly notable amid appreciable new enthusiasm for the way forward for nuclear energy. As POWER has reported, the sector has celebrated stable help around the globe for its potential to offer carbon-free energy and warmth.
In June, Bellevue, Washington, headquartered TerraPower broke floor on the non-nuclear portion of Kemmerer Unit 1, a 345-MW Natrium sodium-cooled quick reactor (SFR) energy plant, at a website about miles from PacifiCorp’s three-unit 604-MW coal and fuel–fired Naughton Energy Plant. TerraPower submitted a development allow software (CPA) to NRC in March 2024 (by way of an entirely owned subsidiary US SFR Proprietor, and the NRC accepted the CPA on Could 21. Whereas the NRC is now engaged on establishing a evaluation schedule for the CPA, TerraPower says it anticipates submitting the working license in 2027, permitting it to start development on the nuclear island in 2026 and full the plant “this decade.”TerraPower, a Invoice Gates nuclear innovation startup, and GE Hitachi Nuclear Vitality (GEH) unveiled the Natrium design in September 2020.
Construction begin of Hermes is illustrative of one other speedy improvement journey for superior nuclear that started lower than 4 years in the past. Kairos, based in 2016, first introduced it will deploy a check reactor on the ETTP in Oak Ridge in December 2020, pending completion of due diligence and discussions with state and native officers. The two,200-acre ETTP website, which previously hosted the Okay-33 gaseous diffusion plant website for 40 years, is now a non-public industrial park. TVA’s 935-acre Clinch River website in Roane County, close to Oak Ridge, Tennessee—for which the utility holds the nation’s solely early website allow (ESP) from the NRC—is positioned about 6 miles away.
“We’re thrilled to begin constructing within the historic East Tennessee Expertise Park,” stated Edward Blandford, Kairos Energy’s chief know-how officer and co-founder. “The Metropolis of Oak Ridge, the Division of Vitality and its contractors, and the Barnard crew have all been glorious companions in serving to us repurpose this brownfield website. Barnard’s sturdy observe report and people-centered tradition are an awesome match for Kairos Energy, and we sit up for working collectively over the long run to understand the way forward for clear nuclear power,” he stated.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
