Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Nuclear power |
Founded | 2016 |
Founder | Mike Laufer, Edward Blandford, Per Peterson |
Headquarters | 707 W. Tower Avenue, Suite A, , |
Area served | United States of America |
Products | Nuclear reactors |
Website | kairospower.com |
Kairos Power is an American nuclear energy company which develops nuclear reactor technology. Founded in 2016, the company is known for its small modular reactors (SMRs) for sustainable power generation.
Kairos Power's main product is its small modular reactors that use molten fluoride salt as a coolant, as opposed to conventional water-cooled reactors. [1]
Kairos Power was founded in 2016 by a team of engineers and scientists. Kairos Power operates in the nuclear energy sector. [2]
In 2023, Kairos Power received a construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build its Hermes demonstration reactor in Tennessee, becoming the first permit in 50 years to be issued for the building of a new type of nuclear reactor. [3] In July 2024, Kairos Power started construction of the demonstration reactor in Tennessee. [4]
In 2024, Kairos Power signed an agreement with Google to use small nuclear reactors to generate energy to be used to power its artificial intelligence data centres. [5] Google has ordered six to seven small nuclear reactors, with the first due to be completed by 2030, and the remainder by 2035. [6] The plans are pending approval by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as local agencies. [7]
A molten-salt reactor (MSR) is a class of nuclear fission reactor in which the primary nuclear reactor coolant and/or the fuel is a mixture of molten salt with a fissile material.
The North Anna Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power plant on a 1,075-acre (435 ha) site in Louisa County, Virginia, in the Mid-Atlantic United States. The site is operated by Dominion Generation company and is jointly owned by the Dominion Virginia Power corporation (88.4%) and by the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (11.6%).
The Palisades Nuclear Generating Station is a moth-balled nuclear power plant located on Lake Michigan, in Van Buren County's Covert Township, Michigan, on a 432-acre (175 ha) site 5 miles (8.0 km) south of South Haven, Michigan, USA. Palisades was operated by the Nuclear Management Company and owned by CMS Energy prior to the sale to Entergy on April 11, 2007.
Generation IVreactors are nuclear reactor design technologies that are envisioned as successors of generation III reactors. The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) – an international organization that coordinates the development of generation IV reactors – specifically selected six reactor technologies as candidates for generation IV reactors. The designs target improved safety, sustainability, efficiency, and cost. The World Nuclear Association in 2015 suggested that some might enter commercial operation before 2030.
The program for nuclear power in Indonesia includes plans to build nuclear reactors in the country for peaceful purposes. Indonesia prohibited development of nuclear weapon or any offensive uses due to signing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons on 2 March 1970 and ratified it as Law No. 8/1978 on 18 December 1978.
NuScale Power Corporation is a publicly traded American company that designs and markets small modular reactors (SMRs). It is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. A 50 MWe version of the design was certified by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in January 2023. The current scalable 77 MWe SMR VOYGR design was submitted for NRC review on January 1, 2023, and as of December 2023 was about a third complete.
TerraPower is an American nuclear reactor design and development engineering company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. TerraPower is developing a class of nuclear fast reactors termed traveling wave reactors (TWR).
The small modular reactor (SMR) is a class of small nuclear fission reactor, designed to be built in a factory, shipped to operational sites for installation and then used to power buildings or other commercial operations. The term SMR refers to the size, capacity and modular construction. Reactor type and the nuclear processes may vary. Of the many SMR designs, the pressurized water reactor (PWR) is the most common. However, recently proposed SMR designs include: generation IV, thermal-neutron reactors, fast-neutron reactors, molten salt, and gas-cooled reactor models.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) is a provider of advanced reactors and nuclear services. It is headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States. Established in June 2007, GEH is a nuclear alliance created by General Electric and Hitachi. In Japan, the alliance is Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy. In November 2015, Jay Wileman was appointed CEO.
The nuclear energy programs of Venezuela started during the 1950s but currently there are no active nuclear power facilities. Most of Venezuela's nuclear science activities are carried out at Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC).
South Africa is the only country in Africa with a commercial nuclear power plant.
Thorium-based nuclear power generation is fueled primarily by the nuclear fission of the isotope uranium-233 produced from the fertile element thorium. A thorium fuel cycle can offer several potential advantages over a uranium fuel cycle—including the much greater abundance of thorium found on Earth, superior physical and nuclear fuel properties, and reduced nuclear waste production. One advantage of thorium fuel is its low weaponization potential. It is difficult to weaponize the uranium-233 that is bred in the reactor. Plutonium-239 is produced at much lower levels and can be consumed in thorium reactors.
The integral molten salt reactor (IMSR) is a nuclear power plant design targeted at developing a commercial product for the small modular reactor (SMR) market. It employs molten salt reactor technology which is being developed by the Canadian company Terrestrial Energy.
The Stable Salt Reactor (SSR) is a nuclear reactor design under development by Moltex Energy Canada Inc. and its subsidiary Moltex Energy USA LLC, based in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, as well as MoltexFLEX Ltd., based in the United Kingdom.
Copenhagen Atomics is a Danish molten salt technology company developing mass manufacturable molten-salt reactors. The company is pursuing small modular, molten fuel salt, thorium fuel cycle, thermal spectrum, breeder reactors using separated plutonium from spent nuclear fuel as the initial fissile load for the first generation of reactors.
TMSR-LF1 is a 2 MWt molten salt reactor (MSR) pilot plant located in northwest China.
A nuclear microreactor is a plug-and-play type of nuclear reactor which can be easily assembled and transported by road, rail or air. Microreactors are 100 to 1,000 times smaller than conventional nuclear reactors, and range in capacity from 1 to 20 megawatts, compared to 20 to 300 megawatts for small modular reactors (SMRs). Due to their size, they can be deployed to locations such as isolated military bases or communities affected by natural disasters. It can operate as part of the grid, independent of the grid, or as part of a small grid for electricity generation and heat treatment. They are designed to provide resilient, non-carbon emitting, and independent power in challenging environments. The nuclear fuel source for the majority of the designs is "High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium", or HALEU.
A number of Xe-100 small modular reactors designed by X-energy are planned to be installed for nuclear electric power production near the Columbia Generating Station in Washington by the 2030s. It would be X-energy's second power plant after one in Texas due to be finished by 2030. The operator will be Energy Northwest, the operator of Columbia Generating Station, the only nuclear power station in the Pacific Northwest.