ENERGY
How Kairos Power鈥檚 sa国际传媒官网网页入口 facility is anchoring its bid to remake nuclear power
Mesa del Sol site is producing reactor components that could help power Google鈥檚 data centers
At a sprawling manufacturing campus in Southeast sa国际传媒官网网页入口鈥檚 Mesa del Sol, Kairos Power is building hardware for advanced nuclear reactors and shipping it to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where it will build a first-of-its-kind nuclear power plant.
The Alameda, California-based Kairos broke ground this month on the Tennessee plant, where it is building the company鈥檚 first commercial-scale reactor, Hermes 2. Its first low-power demonstration reactor, Hermes 1, is also under construction in Oak Ridge. The company entered into an agreement with Google to power the tech giant鈥檚 data centers with nuclear power.
Traditional nuclear reactors use uranium encased in rods in a water-coolant. Kairos鈥� reactors are novel because they use Triso as fuel. The fuel consists of poppy seed-sized particles of uranium encased in thick ceramic shells, thus, the theory goes, preventing meltdowns. Up to 50,000 of the shells are loaded into a vessel full of liquid salt, which is used as a coolant. One reactor could produce up to 75 megawatts of power. Two of the reactors could use one turbine generator to create a 150-MW plant.
Kairos believes its design, which does not require construction of highly engineered containment centers, will cut capital costs of nuclear projects by up to 60%.
The company believes it can demonstrate the technology by 2030 and commercially by 2035. The U.S. Department of Energy鈥檚 Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program in February 2024 announced it signed a $303 million technology investment with Kairos to support the construction of Hermes 1. Under the agreement, Kairos is paid on performance-based milestones, including demonstrations of its reactors.
Mike Laufer, co-founder and CEO of Kairos, said he hopes the company can make the reactors cost-competitive with natural gas 鈥� one of the cheapest fuels for power generation.
Laufer sees a wide market for Kairos鈥� products. He said data centers are soaking up the capacity of electric grids across the nation. Despite the changes in the political climate 鈥� the Trump administration has pulled funding on key renewable energy programs 鈥� corporations such as Google still have climate commitments of their own.
鈥淎nd so now the system is much more supply constrained than it was even probably just a couple years ago,鈥� Laufer said. 鈥淭he demand signal for data centers is not going away. And so everyone is trying to figure out how they can solve new capacity challenges and to do that on different timescales.鈥�
In October 2024, Kairos and Google signed an to create 鈥渁 U.S. fleet of advanced nuclear power projects鈥� totaling 500 MWs by 2035. Under the agreement, the plants 鈥渨ill be sited in relevant service territories to supply clean electricity to Google data centers, with the first deployment by 2030 to support Google鈥檚 24/7 carbon-free energy goals.鈥�
Lucas Davis, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business, who studies energy markets, said it makes sense that Google would be excited about small module nuclear reactors as one of the possibilities to fuel data centers because they are 鈥渓ooking for electricity everywhere.鈥�
Costs will fall as manufacturers become more efficient, he added.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen this with solar panels. We鈥檝e seen it with batteries. And we鈥檝e seen when you do something many, many times, the costs tend to come down,鈥� Davis said. 鈥淭he hope is that the same would happen with (small modular nuclear reactors).鈥�
The reactor equipment Kairos builds in sa国际传媒官网网页入口 is being shipped to Oak Ridge for assembly. Bozeman, Montana-based Barnard Construction Co. is the general contractor for both reactors.
Laufer said New Mexico鈥檚 Job Training Incentive Program, under which the state reimburses at least 50% of wages for newly created jobs, has been a key incentive to manufacture the equipment in the state. Roughly 180 Kairos employees have gone through the program, according to a spokesperson. Twenty are currently enrolled.
On the ability of nuclear power to meet soaring electricity demand, Laufer said, 鈥淚f we look at types of attributes that are really well-suited for that type of capacity and growth, you want something that鈥檚 going to be baseload, reliable, stable, secure.鈥�
鈥淭hose are all good attributes,鈥� he said.
Justin Horwath covers tech and energy for the Journal. You can reach him at jhorwath@abqjournal.com.
