Kairos is making progress on building, too. The corporate acquired 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 energy (as we speak’s industrial reactors sometimes produce round 1,000 megawatts of electrical energy). It’s deliberate for completion as quickly as 2026.

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

There’s nonetheless a protracted street forward earlier than Kairos’s design and different superior reactors could make it onto the grid. The corporate plans to construct a minimum of two extra large-scale take a look at cooling programs earlier than placing the items collectively for Hermes-1, Blandford says. 

The corporate may also 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 is able to embody two reactors which can be related in scale and design to Hermes-1, plus a system to remodel 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 outcome shall be price it. “With our expertise, it’s distinctive,” Blandford says, “and it does open up distinctive alternatives to discover areas that different applied sciences haven’t.”