Kairos is making progress on development, too. The corporate obtained approval in December from the NRC to construct Hermes-1, its first nuclear take a look at reactor. Hermes-1 will produce about 35 megawatts of thermal power (at the moment’s industrial reactors usually produce round 1,000 megawatts of electrical energy). It’s deliberate for completion as quickly as 2026.

A number of different corporations are additionally utilizing molten salt or TRISO gasoline of their superior nuclear designs. X-energy, primarily based in Maryland, is growing a gas-cooled reactor that makes use of TRISO gasoline, and TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Vitality are growing a sodium-cooled reactor that makes use of molten salt to retailer power. 

There’s nonetheless a protracted highway forward earlier than Kairos’s design and different superior reactors could make it onto the grid. The corporate plans to construct no less than two extra large-scale take a look at cooling methods earlier than placing the items collectively for Hermes-1, Blandford says. 

The corporate may even have to win an working license for Hermes-1, the second of two main regulatory steps it’ll undergo with the NRC. Subsequent comes Hermes-2, which can embody two reactors which can be related in scale and design to Hermes-1, plus a system to transform the warmth generated into electrical energy. Lastly, the corporate will transfer on to bigger, commercial-scale reactors.

All of that may take a while, however Kairos and others really feel the consequence will probably be value it. “With our know-how, it’s distinctive,” Blandford says, “and it does open up distinctive alternatives to discover areas that different applied sciences haven’t.”