Kairos is making progress on building, too. The corporate acquired approval in December from the NRC to construct Hermes-1, its first nuclear take a look at reactor. Hermes-1 will produce about 35 megawatts of thermal energy (at this time’s business reactors usually produce round 1,000 megawatts of electrical energy). It’s deliberate for completion as quickly as 2026.
A number of different corporations are additionally utilizing molten salt or TRISO gasoline of their superior nuclear designs. X-energy, primarily based in Maryland, is creating a gas-cooled reactor that makes use of TRISO gasoline, and TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Vitality are creating a sodium-cooled reactor that makes use of molten salt to retailer power.
There’s nonetheless a protracted highway forward earlier than Kairos’s design and different superior reactors could make it onto the grid. The corporate plans to construct no less than two extra large-scale take a look at cooling programs earlier than placing the items collectively for Hermes-1, Blandford says.
The corporate will even have to win an working license for Hermes-1, the second of two main regulatory steps it’ll undergo with the NRC. Subsequent comes Hermes-2, which can embody two reactors which are related in scale and design to Hermes-1, plus a system to rework the warmth generated into electrical energy. Lastly, the corporate will transfer on to bigger, commercial-scale reactors.
All of that can take a while, however Kairos and others really feel the end result will likely be price it. “With our expertise, it’s distinctive,” Blandford says, “and it does open up distinctive alternatives to discover areas that different applied sciences haven’t.”