The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Kairos Power have entered into a $27 million strategic partnership to accelerate the technology needed to deploy a new generation of advanced nuclear reactors and support U.S. nuclear energy goals.  

Under the partnership, ORNL will provide expertise and access to specialized facilities to review and evaluate various aspects of Kairos Power’s novel fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor design, which uses molten fluoride salt coolant with tristructural ISOtropic (TRISO) fuel to generate reliable energy with robust inherent safety. ORNL will also manufacture components for reactor development and testing, and assess the performance of coated particle fuel following irradiation under conditions relevant to their planned reactor operation. Ultimately, the project’s outcomes will support the design, construction, and eventual operation of Kairos Power’s planned Hermes demonstration reactors under construction in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and subsequent commercialization of its planned fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor.

ORNL demonstrated the proof of concept and performance of the world’s first molten salt reactor 60 years ago. Since then, ORNL has fostered the continued development of molten salt reactor technology, which uses salt rather than water as the primary coolant.

“Providing the scientific basis for new technology is what we do at Oak Ridge National Laboratory,” says ORNL director Stephen Streiffer. “With energy demand expected to increase substantially by 2050, our continued partnerships with U.S. industry, including Kairos Power, are how we will bring more reliable, affordable energy to market.” 

Pushing to readiness

The DOE is investing up to $303 million of risk-reduction funding in Kairos Power’s Hermes demonstration reactors under the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program to mature the company’s molten salt reactor design. 

“The DOE’s support has been instrumental in helping Kairos Power accelerate our path to technological maturity,” says Ed Blandford, chief technology officer and co-founder of Kairos Power. “By collaborating with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, we gain access to decades of expertise and a unique set of capabilities that we couldn’t find anywhere else. We are pleased to partner with the lab as we work to deploy safe, reliable, advanced reactor technology that builds on Oak Ridge’s nuclear legacy.”

During the next five years, ORNL will provide key learnings from testing and assessments conducted at its specialized facilities, including the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, Coated Particle Fuel Development Laboratory, and Irradiated Fuels Examination Laboratory. The unique combination of infrastructure capabilities provided at these facilities is unparalleled in the private sector.

The scope of work includes:
• Assessing fuel manufacturing and synthesis methods to evaluate product quality and production methods for TRISO fuel particles
• Understanding the properties of TRISO fuel pebbles to support a fabrication capability and quality control infrastructure
• Completing a comprehensive spent-fuel pebble management plan to include onsite cask storage, transportation, and final disposition
• Producing components using advanced manufacturing techniques to better understand how materials that come into contact with the salt, such as ceramics, carbon composites, and metallic materials, perform in extremely high temperatures
• Enabling remote maintenance systems capable of operating under high temperatures with simultaneous exposure to radiation and corrosive salts

These data will then inform the next steps necessary toward commercial operation.  

“It’s exciting to see how our historical lineage in molten salt reactor technology and coated particle fuel are being leveraged with the lab’s more recent advances in additive manufacturing to support Kairos Power in building the first advanced reactor of its kind in our own backyard,” says Chris Petrie, interim section head of Nuclear Fuel Development at ORNL. “Our expertise, paired with Kairos Power’s iterative approach to progressively demonstrating the technology, allows us to learn faster and ultimately accelerate the deployment of more nuclear energy to the grid.”

A cross section of a surrogate fuel pebble reveals the TRISO particles embedded in a proprietary annular design. Kairos Power’s reactor technology leverages TRISO fuel and fluoride salt coolant to achieve robust inherent safety. Credit: Kairos Power

Nuclear innovation network

The project marks the fourth partnership between ORNL and Kairos Power since 2020, and continues the significant interest in nuclear energy in the Oak Ridge Corridor and across the state of Tennessee.

With its proximity to ORNL’s signature capabilities in nuclear energy, as well as key partners from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s nuclear engineering program, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the East Tennessee Economic Council, and leaders in industry, East Tennessee is now home to the largest concentration of nuclear energy and science collaborations in the world.

“Partnerships like these are providing the economic wherewithal to build an energy ecosystem right here in East Tennessee,” says Andrew Nelson, ORNL’s interim director of the Nuclear Energy Fuel Cycle Division. “As the East Tennessee Economic Council has rightly observed, nuclear is here for good reason. The region brings breadth of scientific expertise, infrastructure for future workforce development, and industry innovation needed to secure our nuclear energy future.”

Since 1990, continued research and development in nuclear energy—including innovation led by ORNL focused on improving nuclear fuels and operations—has enabled the country’s 94 nuclear power plants to generate 60% more power and provide approximately 20% of the nation’s electricity. 

In the coming years, the demand for energy is expected to surge, in large part because of growth in the manufacturing sector and new data centers coming online. Nuclear capacity must increase substantially to meet this need.

“ORNL has a long history of driving innovation and efficiencies in the nuclear industry. Through impactful industry collaborations such as our ongoing partnership with Kairos Power, I am confident that we will see an ever-expanding portfolio of nuclear power plants in the future,” says Nelson. 

ORNL is committed to supporting U.S. energy needs by pursuing strategic research that advances a wide variety of affordable, abundant, and competitive nuclear technologies, and strengthens national security. The lab’s scientific expertise and world-class facilities are often the first step in advancing nuclear energy innovations.

Published Feb. 19, 2026, by ORNL.