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July 30, 2024
Kairos Power has announced the start of structure and excavation paintings for the Hermes low-power demonstration reactor, the first non-light water reactor permitted in the United States in more than 50 years.
Hermes is a non-energy version of Kairos Power’s high-temperature fluorinated salt-cooled reactor, the KP-HFR, and is the first and only Gen IV reactor to date to be approved for construction by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). ). Expected to be operational until 2027, the reactor will be the company’s first nuclear construction and is a step on the company’s iterative path towards commercializing complex reactor technology. Its main objective will be to demonstrate the ability to produce nuclear heat at an affordable price. Price, but it won’t produce electricity: This will come in the next iteration, the proposed Hermes 2 power plant.
Kairos Power relies on the heavy corporate civil structure Barnard Construction Company, Inc for paintings at the Hermes site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. At the same time, the companies are also participating in the construction of the Third Technical Test Unit (ETU 3. 0), a non-nuclear demonstration facility co-located with Hermes that will generate expertise in the origin chain, structure and operations to shed light on the Hermes Project. This iterative strategy will seamlessly translate the lessons learned from the ETU 3. 0 civil structure to Hermes’ facilities, the company said.
Mike Laufer, CEO and co-founder of Kairos Power, described Hermes as a step toward deploying complex reactor technology. “The lessons we will be briefed on the structure and operation of this reactor will be invaluable in enabling continued innovation in our testing program and accelerating Kairos Power’s progress toward true load certainty for our customers,” he said.
Hermes and ETU 3. 0 will be built using modular structure techniques, with reactor modules manufactured at Kairos Power’s facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which will be shipped to Oak Ridge for assembly. This will demonstrate the potential of a small, factory-built modular reactor for a traditional nuclear structure, the company said.
Hermes is a joint effort between Kairos Power and partners including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, EPRI and Materion Corporation. Kairos Power partners with Los Alamos National Laboratory to produce TRISO pebble fuel for the Hermes plant and has a cooperative progression agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide engineering, operations and support. License.
The NRC issued a structure permit to Hermes last December. Kairos Power also applied for a structure permit for the Hermes 2 control reactor, which will generate electricity, which will also be built in Oak Ridge and will come with two 35 MWt arrays similar to the Hermes plant. Earlier this month, the regulator announced the final touch of its final protection assessment of the Hermes 2 construction application, completing its design review approximately 4 months ahead of schedule and approximately 60% under resourced than expected. , thanks to the classes learned. from his previous study. Balance of the Hermès factory.