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.

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