BWXT and Kairos partner up on TRISO

BWX Technologies and Kairos Power have agreed to work together to explore commercial production of tri-structural isotropic (TRISO) fuel to supply Kairos and other customers.

Under the agreement, the joint team will explore opportunities to use Kairos’s TRISO Development Lab at its Albuquerque, N.M. campus, BWXT Innovation Campus in Lynchburg, Va. and BWXT’s existing TRISO production line to enhance TRISO fuel output, according to BWXT’s Wednesday press release.

The collaboration brings Kairos’s capabilities in annular graphite pebble production with BWXT’s experience of more than 20 years in TRISO fuel manufacturing, BWXT said.

TRISO fuel consists of tiny particles, each containing a uranium kernel encapsulated in multiple layers of carbon and ceramic-based materials.

The two companies will consider potential paths to deliver fuel for Kairos’s Hermes 2 demonstration plant and future Kairos reactor deployments.

The Hermes 2 test reactor’s construction permit application was approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November 2024. The reactor would produce 50 megawatts of electricity for the Tennessee Valley Authority and Google under a separate recent purchase power agreement.

BWXT and Kairos also separately agreed to evaluate opportunities to jointly develop a TRISO fuel fabrication facility, according to the press release.

BWXT has continued to push forward in its nuclear fuel portfolio as the company announced on Aug. 21 that it has formed a new subsidiary company dedicated to the commercialization of advanced fuel such as TRISO.