The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued construction permits to Kairos Power for its Hermes Two Demonstration Plant at the Heritage Center Industrial Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The plant will also host a proposed single 35MW Hermes One Test Reactor, a non-nuclear engineering test unit, and potentially a fuel fabrication facility.
“The commission’s approval of the Hermes Two construction permits marks an important step toward delivering clean electricity from advanced reactors to support decarbonization,” said Mike Laufer, CEO of Kairos.
“The licensing basis established with both the Hermes and Hermes Two construction permits will carry forward to future license applications, ensuring the safety of Kairos Power’s deployments while supporting continued innovation and efficiency in the review process,” said Peter Hastings, vice president of regulatory affairs and quality at Kairos.
Laufer said: “The commitment for multiple reactors of the same type has strong alignment for both Google and Kairos because it allows for learning across the multiple projects, bringing down the cost curve for new technologies as they're initially deployed.”
