Kairos Power

Kairos Power is an American nuclear energy company which develops Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Founded in 2016, the company is known for its aim to build small modular reactors (SMRs) for sustainable power generation.

Kairos Power

Company type	Private
Industry	Small modular reactors
Founded	2016
Founder	Mike Laufer, Edward Blandford, Per Peterson
Headquarters	707 W. Tower Avenue, Suite A, Alameda, California , US
Area served	United States of America
Products	Nuclear reactors
Website	kairospower.com

Products

Kairos Power's main product shall be small modular reactors that use molten fluoride salt as a coolant, as opposed to conventional water-cooled reactors.^[1]

History

Kairos Power was founded in 2016 by a team of engineers and scientists. Kairos Power operates in the Small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear energy sector.^[2] It's current project is developing the Hermes fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature (FHR) SMR.

In 2021, Kairos Power applied for Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) design approval for their Hermes FHR SMR. As of 2025, however, the application has yet to receive approval.^[3] NRC design approvals are known to be the biggest hurdle for US SMRs. Even for proven Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) SMRs, the approval process for design approval averages close to 10 years. Unproven nuclear power technology designs, such as an FHR fuel source plant, should be expected to take longer and face a higher risk of rejection.

In 2023, the NRC approved site construction in Tennessee for a Hermes demonstration reactor, but this approval is unrelated to the NRC's design review now underway. The site construction approval was the first approval awarded in 50 years for a US plant, ^[4][5]

In 2024, Kairos Power signed an agreement with Google to use small nuclear reactors to generate energy to be used to power its artificial intelligence data centres.^[6] Google has ordered six to seven small nuclear reactors, with the first due to be completed by 2030, and the remainder by 2035.^[7] The plans are pending approval by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission as well as local agencies.^[8]

FHR Technology

Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) are nothing new amongst nuclear energy researchers and have been studied in the US by since the 1950s. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was one of the early organizations to build and run a test MSR for 5 years, starting in 1964. The Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment was canceled in 1969 after going critical, but was considered a success by the nuclear science community. In later years, researchers at the lab exposed the plant's operational issues, which included 171 unplanned shutdowns and an overall operation time of 40 percent due to corrosion and waste buildups.^[9]

The Fluoride Salt-Cooled High Temperature Reactor (FHR) Kairos is proposing for use with their Hermes SMR is very similar to an MSR, but includes the addition of fluoride to the salt. Fluoride is known to protect metals from the salt's corrosiveness at higher temperatures. However, there are many issues with fluoride's highly corrosive gas during fuel removal and regularly anticipated plant cleanings to remove the same waste buildups MSRs suffer from. As an alternative, nitrogen trifluoride is being proposed. However, ongoing research has not proven this to be a viable alternative, and its efficacy is unclear.^[10][11]