 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Small modular reactors |
| Founded | 2016 |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | United States of America |
| Products | Nuclear reactors |
| Website | kairospower.com |
Kairos Power LLC is an American nuclear energy company that develops fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactors, also known as molten-salt reactors, a type of small modular reactors (SMRs). Founded in 2016, the company is known for its aim to build SMRs for sustainable power generation.
Kairos Power's main product shall be 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 small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear energy sector. [2] Its current project is developing the Hermes fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature (FHR) SMR.
In 2021, Kairos Power applied for a construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for their Hermes demonstration FHR. The application was approved in December 2023. [3] Kairos Power has not sought NRC design approval for its SMRs.
In 2023, the NRC approved site construction in Tennessee for the Hermes demonstration reactor. The site construction approval was the first approval awarded in 50 years for a non-water-cooled US plant, [4] [5]
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. [6] Google has ordered six to seven small nuclear reactors, with the first due to be completed by 2030, and the remainder by 2035. [7] The plans are pending approval by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as local agencies. [8]
Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) are nothing new amongst nuclear energy researchers and have been studied in the US by since the 1950s. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was one of the early organizations to build and run a test MSR for 5 years, starting in 1964. The Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment was canceled in 1969 after going critical, but was considered a success by the nuclear science community. In later years, researchers at the lab exposed the plant's operational issues, which included 171 unplanned shutdowns and an overall operation time of 40 percent due to corrosion and waste buildups. [9]
The Fluoride Salt-Cooled High Temperature Reactor (FHR) Kairos is developing uses the same type of coolant that was first demonstrated in the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment – a mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride known as "FLiBe." [10] Fluoride is known to protect metals from the salt's corrosiveness at higher temperatures. Unlike other MSRs, Kairos Power's reactor uses solid fuel. TRISO particles are encased in annular graphite fuel pebbles that are buoyant in the molten salt coolant. The pebble bed design enables online refueling, allowing fresh fuel to be added and used fuel to be removed without shutting down the reactor. [11] TRISO particles cannot melt in a reactor and can withstand extreme temperatures that are well beyond the threshold of current nuclear fuels. TRISO has been described by the U.S. Department of Energy as "the most robust nuclear fuel on earth." [12]
