Kairos is making progress on building, too. The corporate obtained approval in December from the NRC to construct Hermes-1, its first nuclear check reactor. Hermes-1 will produce about 35 megawatts of thermal energy (as we speak’s industrial reactors usually produce round 1,000 megawatts of electrical energy). It’s deliberate for completion as quickly as 2026.

A number of different firms are additionally utilizing molten salt or TRISO gasoline of their superior nuclear designs. X-energy, based mostly in Maryland, is creating a gas-cooled reactor that makes use of TRISO gasoline, and TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Power are creating a sodium-cooled reactor that makes use of molten salt to retailer power. 

There’s nonetheless a protracted street forward earlier than Kairos’s design and different superior reactors could make it onto the grid. The corporate plans to construct at the very least two extra large-scale check cooling programs earlier than placing the items collectively for Hermes-1, Blandford says. 

The corporate may also 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 is able to embrace two reactors which are comparable 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 consequence will probably 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.”