Hermes under construction in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Kairos Power has finalized a contract with the Department of Energy to receive high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) from the agency for the company’s Hermes low-power demonstration reactor, currently under construction in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
In partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory, Kairos intends to use the DOE-provided material to produce HALEU TRISO fuel pebbles for Hermes. The company views the Hermes test reactor and the fuel fabrication program as crucial to the eventual success of its power-producing Hermes 2 demonstration plant, also to be sited in Oak Ridge, and future commercial fluoride salt–cooled high-temperature reactors.
HALEU availability: Kairos Power was one of five U.S. reactor developers conditionally selected by the DOE last April to receive HALEU enriched up to 19.75 percent fissile uranium-235. While HALEU is essential for some new reactor designs, the U.S. lacks domestic HALEU enrichment capacity, and the DOE established the HALEU Availability Program in 2020 in part to facilitate the allocation of HALEU for civilian research, development, demonstration, and commercial purposes. The other four companies slated to receive DOE-sourced HALEU in April are TRISO-X, Radiant Industries, Westinghouse Electric Company, and TerraPower; in August additional commitments went to Antares, Standard Nuclear, and Abilene Christian University/Natura.
Mike Laufer, cofounder and CEO of Kairos, praised the DOE’s HALEU Availability Program, noting that the agency’s support “allows us to keep up our momentum, as we drive toward a shared goal of unlocking advanced nuclear energy’s potential and accelerating U.S. reactor deployment. We appreciate DOE’s continued commitment to our iterative development process, helping us secure a reliable source of HALEU to meet our near-term fuel needs.”
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Fuel Cycle Florence Knauf said that the DOE is “excited to see Kairos Power finalize their contract to receive HALEU and look[s] forward to seeing them move forward with the fabrication of TRISO fuel for Hermes 1.”
Milestones and future plans: Kairos is also receiving as much as $303 million in funding from the DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) for the Hermes project under a performance-based milestone contract. Two of the ARDP milestones were met by Kairos last year when reactor vessels for two nonnuclear hardware demonstrations were installed.
Even as work on Hermes progresses, Kairos has been busy during the past year with plans related to Hermes 2. In August, the company signed a power purchase agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority to use Hermes 2 to supply as much as 50 MW of electricity to the TVA grid, which powers two data centers owned by Google. In September, Kairos Power and BWX Technologies announced plans to “collaboratively explore” optimizing commercial production of HALEU TRISO fuel for future reactors, including Hermes 2.
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