Kairos Power has installed the reactor vessel for its third Engineering Test Unit at its campus in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the company announced this week.
The third Engineering Test Unit vessel, which is 14-foot-tall, marks a construction milestone for its non-nuclear reactor mockup, Kairos said in its Tuesday press release. The third Engineering building is being built around the reactor vessel in a streamlined sequence.
Kairos, in conjunction with Barnard Construction, is building the facility and using it as a proving ground to improve construction methods for the Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor, under construction at the same site.
The reactor vessel is also a contractual milestone under Kairos Power’s technology investment agreement with the Department of Energy for up to $303 million in risk reduction funding through DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, according to the press release.
Kairos began nuclear construction for its Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor in May. The company has a construction permit for the demonstration reactor issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December 2023.
Hermes is a scaled demonstration of the Kairos Power’s fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor technology. The test reactor will produce 35 megawatts thermal and will not produce electricity, according to its NRC application.
