Kairos Power has signed an important deal with a technology giant, and received approval for its new test facility.
It’s a very busy season for us all, but especially in the nuclear advanced industry.
MIT Technology Review We released our 15 Climate Tech companies to Watch list less than two month ago. Kairos Power, the awardee of our list 15 Climate Tech Companies to Watch has made three major announcements since then about its progress towards building next-generation reactors.
These news items each represent a different aspect of the nuclear technology process. Let’s look at the news and see what it means for nuclear technology.
Let’s take a moment to review Kairos Power. While most nuclear power plants use pressurized salt water for cooling, Kairos uses molten sal. These reactors, which are smaller than the ones typically used today to generate electricity, will be safer and more energy-efficient than traditional nuclear power.
Kairos’ strategy is to take small steps towards the goal of building full-size nuclear power plants. Hermes was the first reactor of this company to be built. This facility will produce a tiny amount of heat, about 35 megawatts worth to demonstrate the technology.
The company received an award for its outstanding performance. construction permit Hermes 2 is the system that Hermes will be releasing in its next version. The plant is located in the same area as Hermes and will have all of the necessary infrastructure for converting heat into electricity. That makes it the first electricity-producing next-generation nuclear plant to get this approval in the US.
In an interview, Kairos CEO Mike Laufer said that while this wasn’t a big surprise because the company had been working with NRC for many years. “Any day you get a permit from NRC or a licence is a special and unusual day,” he added.
He added that the company was developing a strategy to build Hermes 2 and Hermes 1 at the same. Laufer responded that Hermes’ start-up date of 2027 is “aggressive.”
Kairos, while construction of test reactors continues, is advancing with commercial agreements — in October, the company announced Google and the agreement By 2035, the power plant capacity should reach 500 Megawatts. Kairos, under this agreement will build, operate and develop plants, as well as sell electricity to tech giant.
Kairos must build several reactors in order to reach 500 MW. First units should be deployed by 2030. Additional units will follow. Laufer claims that one of the advantages of smaller reactors are learning and improving as they go, which can reduce costs and improve construction efficiency.
The Google and construction permit announcements are the most recent Kairos news, but I am also intrigued by another milestone. Early October the company began to advertise its services. Ground was broken on the construction of a facility for salt production Albuquerque in New Mexico will produce the molten sal used to cool their reactors.
Laufer explains that salt is a key area where the company has some unique, specialized requirements. He adds that having control of the areas in the supply chain which are specialized is key for the company to deliver electricity at a lower price and with greater reliability.
Flibe is the name of Flibe’s company’s proprietary molten sodium, which contains a mix between lithium fluoride (LiF) and beryllium Fluoride. Laufer told me a fun fact: the mix needs to contain more lithium-7, which absorbs less neutrons. This allows the reactors to operate at optimum efficiency. New Albuquerque facility will be producing large amounts of Flibe high-purity enriched with lithium-7.
It’s interesting to watch Kairos take so many steps quickly in order to deliver on their promise of cheap, safe nuclear energy.
We’ve made a number of great achievements. Laufer states that we have a lot of work to do. This is not something that can be done easily. “We believe that we are doing things the right way and with the correct approach, but this requires hard work and dedication.”
