Kairos Power broke ground Friday on the Hermes 2 Demonstration Plant, the company’s first commercial-scale reactor and the first-ever power-producing Gen IV reactor to receive a construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Kairos is one of several companies focused on nuclear technology that has located in Oak Ridge thanks to the cleanup efforts of UCOR and the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management.
Hermes 2 is Kairos Power’s first deployment under its landmark deal with Google to develop an advanced reactor fleet. The plant, being built at the ETTP Heritage Center where the K-33 Building once stood, will supply up to 50 megawatts of clean electricity to the Tennessee Valley Authority grid, helping to decarbonize Google data centers in Tennessee and Alabama.
Through Kairos Power’s iterative development approach, Hermes 2 will build on lessons learned from the Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor (Hermes 1), which commenced nuclear construction at the same site last year. The Hermes series will be the first fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactors ever built, incorporating proven nuclear technologies that originated in Oak Ridge.
