- Kairos Breaks Ground for GEN IV Demonstration Reactor
- Type One Energy Group Completes $82.4M Seed Financing Round
- India’s Nuclear Regulatory Approves Fuel Loading for Fast Breeder Reactor
- Singapore Signs 123 Agreement with US Opening the Door to SMRs
- Sweden To Cooperate with US For New Reactors
- Progress Seen on NRC Construction Permit for Texas based Natura Resources MSR
Kairos Breaks Ground for GEN IV Demonstration Reactor
“Hermes is a pivotal step toward deploying advanced reactor technology with the potential to transform our energy landscape,” said Mike Laufer, Kairos Power CEO and co-founder.
Kairos Power has contracted with Barnard Construction Company, Inc., a heavy-civil construction company, to perform site work and excavation at the Hermes site in Oak Ridge, TN, which began earlier this month.
In tandem with Hermes, Barnard and Kairos Power have also started collaborating to build the third Engineering Test Unit (ETU 3.0) which is a non-nuclear demonstration co-located in Oak Ridge, TN, that will generate supply chain, construction, and operational experience to inform the Hermes project. This iterative approach will allow lessons learned from ETU 3.0 civil construction to transfer seamlessly to the Hermes facility.
Both Hermes and ETU 3.0 will be built using modular construction techniques piloted at Kairos Power’s testing and manufacturing campus in Albuquerque, NM. Reactor modules will be fabricated in Albuquerque and shipped to Oak Ridge for assembly, demonstrating the potential of a factory-built small modular reactor design to transform conventional nuclear construction.
Targeted to be operational in 2027, Hermes will be Kairos Power’s first nuclear build. The fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor will leverage proven technologies that originated in Oak Ridge which are a combination of TRISO coated particle fuel and Flibe molten fluoride salt coolant. Kairos noted that the combination of these technologies improves safety and supports simplifying the reactor’s design
Building on lessons learned from the Engineering Test Unit program, Hermes’ primary objective will be to demonstrate Kairos Power’s ability to produce affordable nuclear heat. The Hermes reactor will not produce electricity.
Kairos Power has committed to invest at least $100 million and create 55+ high-paying, full-time jobs in East Tennessee to support Hermes’ construction and operation. The project is located on the site of the decommissioned Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plan and represents a positive re-use of the this parcel.
Funding & Partnerships
The Department of Energy will invest up to $303 million in the project through a performance-based milestone contract funded by the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program to support Hermes’ design, construction, and commissioning.
- Hermes is a joint effort by Kairos Power and its partners, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory (INL), EPRI, and Materion Corporation.
- Kairos Power is partnering with Los Alamos National Laboratory to produce TRISO pebble fuel for Hermes in the lab’s Low-Enriched Fuel Fabrication Facility.
- Kairos Power has established a cooperative development agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to support the design, construction, and commissioning of the Hermes demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, TN, to provide engineering, operations, and licensing support for Hermes.
In December 2023, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a construction permit for Hermes following an accelerated review made possible by Kairos Power’s extensive pre-application engagement dating back to 2018.
Hermes is named after the mythological messenger of the gods, who was renowned for his speed, reflecting the urgency of Kairos Power’s clean energy mission. Lessons learned from Hermes will help de-risk technology, licensing, manufacturing, and construction for the company’s future commercial deployments.
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Type One Energy Group Completes $82.4M Seed Financing Round
- Fusion energy company goes global, attracting a broad base of financial stakeholders from SE Asia
Type One Energy announced the final closing of its $82.4 million seed financing round, attracting a broad base of global investors to the company and its FusionDirect program, which is pursuing a direct path to commercializing fusion energy. The FusionDirect program is focused on leveraging the latest breakthroughs in stellarator fusion performance and plasma science together with technical innovations in high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet technology as well as advanced manufacturing.
The company said in its press statement that its ambition is for FusionDirect to culminate in the launch of Type One Energy’s fusion pilot power-plant project with an owner/operating partner by 2030 who can start building a first-of-a-kind plant in a deal that will involve licensing the design to the builder. The firm did not offer a projected target date a building would be ready to deploy a commercial version for a customer.
Type One Energy, announced a fresh $53.5 million in funding. The company had previously raised $29 million in 2023, and the current extension brings the total to around $82.4 million. Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures led the extension, with Australia-based Foxglove Ventures and New Zealand-based GD1 participating.
The company said in media interviews that this global support highlights the growing international view that fusion technology can play a critical role in completing the transition to a net zero carbon emissions energy system.
The investor seed funds acquired so far are literally the equivalent of the starting gun for the race to market with the firm’s technology. CEO Christofer Mowry told TechCrunch, “Given the rate at which we want to accelerate, we needed a larger quantum of capital, we weren’t going to get there with your prototypical $20 million, $30 million, $40 million seed round.”
The other goal of the funding round, Mowry said, was to bring in partners who are more familiar with Southeast Asia, where a large portion of the world’s population lives.
“In the last five years, China built more coal plants than the total installed base of North American coal plants. If we don’t find a way to decarbonize the region, we might as well fold up the tent and go home.”
So far Type One’s investors like what they see.
The Co-Managing Partner of New Zealand’s GD1 fund, Vignesh Kumar, stated: “The progress Type One Energy has achieved in its FusionDirect program, its access to critical infrastructure such as Oak Ridge National Lab’s supercomputing resources, support from the DOE Milestone Fusion Development Program, and its focus on advancing the FusionDirect program in the ASEAN region including across New Zealand, made an investment into the team and company a very compelling thesis for us.”
Complementing GD1’s decision to become a Type One Energy shareholder, important elements of Australia’s venture capital market joined this financing round. Foxglove’s CEO Gareth Hicks, based in Perth, offered the following comment about Australia’s engagement in Type One Energy:
“We are committed to the energy transition, and we want to participate in the value chain of new solutions to key global challenges. Type One Energy’s partner-based approach to fusion commercialization is important to us.”
In addition to bringing new investors into the fusion sector, Type One Energy attracted significant commitments from long-time investors in the industry, including Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) co-founder and founder of Centaurus Capital, John Arnold.
“The successful commercialization of fusion energy will play a critical role in achieving clean, abundant energy,” said Carmichael Roberts, from Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
“Stellarator fusion technology now offers the opportunity to directly develop and deploy a fusion pilot power plant without the need to resolve any more fundamental science or engineering challenges and Type One Energy has assembled a great team and strategy to accelerate the deployment of fusion technology globally.”
ORNL Supercomputer Aids Type One Design
Type One has access to Summit, an exascale supercomputer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, with which the startup has a partnership. Summit can perform 250 million times more calculations per second than supercomputers could back in the early 1980s, when Wendelstein 7-X stellarator was first being designed.
Because confinement of the plasma in a stellarator is driven solely by the external magnets, modifying the shape and strength of the fields has a major impact on performance. To tailor a three-dimensional magnetic field with the right shape to achieve quasi-symmetry requires extensive calculations. Advances in computer modeling code an high performance computing has provided this ability.
Thanks to Summit, Mowry told Tech Crunch, “We can sharpen the pencil on the design.”
Type One is using a magnet design licensed from MIT, the same one Commonwealth Fusion Systems uses. Type One has modified the cables that make up the magnets to accommodate the twists and turns of a stellarator.
Conceptual image of a Stellarator Fusion Device
Image: C. Brandt in Research Gate
Next Stop ‘Infinity One’
In 2025 the startup plans to complete the core reactor design. At that time it plans to start building a prototype reactor called Infinity One, which will happen in tandem with the design process for a pilot reactor. Once the pilot design is finalized, which Type One says will happen in 2030, it will license it to another company to build the FOAK plant.
Type One said in its press statement that Infinity One, once completed, will be the world’s most advanced stellarator. It will allow the firm to verify important elements of the Fusion Pilot Plant (FPP) it is currently designing. The primary goals of the Project Infinity program and Infinity One include:
- Demonstrating the efficacy of modular high-temperature superconducting (HTS) magnet system for stellarators,
- Evaluating stellarator plasma performance in the presence of a metallic first wall,
- Verifying the reduction in plasma heat loss from turbulence, and
- Confirming improved exhaust efficiency.
- Infinity One will also provide a testbed for demonstrating improved manufacturing, construction, and commissioning processes, both in cost and time, using design innovations and modern methods.
“When Infinity One operates and we test it, it’s actually verifying the key design aspects of the pilot plant,” Mowry told Tech Crunch. The goal isn’t just to prove that it works, but also to validate the assembly and maintenance of the machine.
“If you build a fusion machine, whether it’s a stellarator machine or any other kind, and it takes you two years to shut it down, maintain it, start it back up, you’re gonna sell exactly none,” he said.
A Major Presence in East Tennessee
Type One is building its prototype at the decommissioned Bull Run coal plant in Clinton, TN, about 27 miles southeast of Knoxville, TN. According to the Knoxville News, Type One Energy also will move its headquarters from Oak Ridge to a Hardin Valley facility. It expects to spend $223 million over the next five years, and plans to create more than 300 jobs in the region with an average salary of $130,000.
Its presence in Oak Ridge and Knoxville highlights the region’s status as a hub for the next renaissance of nuclear technology, driven by startups like California-based Kairos Power, which began building its Hermes advanced reactor in Oak Ridge this month.
The annual Nuclear Opportunities Workshop, hosted by the East Tennessee Economic Council, drew more than 600 industry professionals to the Airport Hilton hotel July 30-31, including representatives of Type One Energy.
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India’s Nuclear Regulatory Approves Fuel Loading for Fast Breeder Reactor
(WNN) India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has granted permission for the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), a 500 MW sodium-cooled advanced reactor located at Kalpakkam, on India’s eastern coastline to move to the next stage of the commissioning process, the ‘First Approach to Criticality’. This will include the loading of fuel into the reactor core and the start of low power physics experiments.
Testing and qualification of Control & Safety Rod and its drive mechanism of Fast Breeder Reactor –
July 2010 Nuclear Engineering and Design 240(7):1728-1738
Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Department of Atomic Energy
Phased core loading activities began earlier this year, with the insertion of control sub-assemblies and blanket sub-assemblies under AERB oversight. The regulator said its approval of the ‘First Approach to Criticality’ follows a review process which included those activities, execution of a thorough multi-tier safety review, regular inspections and oversight by a resident site observer team.
“Following extensive evaluation of the detailed safety submissions, review outcomes, and a site visit, the Board has affirmed the systematic regulatory oversight and granted the necessary permissions,” the AERB said in a statement dated July 30th.
Now that permission has been granted for the ‘First Approach to Criticality’, fuel sub-assemblies will be introduced into the reactor core. Once a sustained nuclear fission chain reaction is achieved, marking the reactor’s criticality, a series of low power physics experiments will be conducted to further assess and understand reactor behavior, the AERB said.
India’s Three Stage Nuclear Energy Program
Fast breeder reactors form the second stage of India’s three-stage nuclear program, using plutonium recovered from the reprocessing of used fuel from the pressurized heavy water (PHWR) and light water (LWR) reactors that form the first stage of the program. The third stage envisages using advanced heavy water reactors (AHWRs) to burn thorium-plutonium fuels and breed fissile uranium-233, achieving a thorium-based closed nuclear fuel cycle.
The PFBR has been developed by BHAVINI (Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited), a government enterprise operating under the Department of Atomic Energy. Construction began in 2004, with an original expected completion date of 2010. It will initially use a core of uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, surrounded by a uranium-238 ‘blanket’, with later plans to use a blanket of uranium and thorium to breed plutonium and uranium-233 for use as driver fuels for AHWRs.
“It is a huge milestone for India’s self-reliant atomic energy program,” confirmed Dinesh Kumar Shukla, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board who added that the “PFBR is an inherently safe reactor”.
This development now marks the use of plutonium as a nuclear fuel and more importantly the first steps at using thorium as an atomic energy source. India has huge reserves of thorium and the country is developing the reactor technology to use thorium as fuel. Experts say if India can tap thorium as a fuel, the country can be assured of energy independence and find the potential for energy that will last for more than three centuries.
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Singapore Signs 123 Agreement with US Opening the Door to SMRs
(Strait Times) Singapore and the United States on July 31st inked a 30-year 123 agreement that will allow the republic to access the latest commercial nuclear technologies and scientific research from American organizations.
The move will help Singapore make a more informed decision on nuclear power as a clean energy source, said the authorities, who stressed that no decision has been made on deploying nuclear energy.
By signing the agreement, Singapore will have access to detailed information that the US has placed under export control. The agreement is also a prerequisite for Singapore to collaborate with other countries that use nuclear energy technologies and designs containing intellectual property of US origin.
Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan signed the 123 Agreement on Nuclear Cooperation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Singapore from July 30 to July 31 as part of an 11-day visit to South-east Asia.
“Current conventional nuclear technologies are not suitable for Singapore. But given advances in civil nuclear technology, we need to stay abreast of breakthroughs in this rapidly evolving field,” said Dr Balakrishnan during the signing.
“The Agreement facilitates access to information, technological expertise, and allows us to deepen our engagements with civil nuclear experts in the US.
In a statement on July 31st, the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said any decision to deploy nuclear energy in Singapore will require “detailed studies of the safety, reliability, affordability and environmental sustainability of nuclear energy in our local context”.
In his statement at the signing ceremony, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken referenced a possible development path forward for Singapore with small modular reactors.
“As Singapore decides whether to adopt civil nuclear energy, the 123 Agreement creates possibility, it creates a framework to develop safe, secure, modern civil nuclear power including . . . pioneering work with small modular reactors.”
Both ministries said Singapore will be joining the US Department of State’s Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) program, which supports partners to better understand small modular reactors or other newer advanced nuclear energy technologies.
FIRST helps partner countries:
- Establish a nuclear power program under the highest international standards for nuclear security, safety, and nonproliferation,
- Take advantage of next generation nuclear innovations and technologies in their sustainable energy plans,
- Meet their clean, reliable energy goals while protecting the global climate and;
- Deepen relationships through government, industry, national laboratory, and university engagements.
Under the First program, Singapore will gain access to a network of US partner entities involved in nuclear energy, including the national laboratories, and countries developing newer nuclear energy technologies to facilitate its capability building process.
“This agreement builds on the longstanding civil nuclear collaboration between (the) United States and Singapore and outlines a comprehensive framework to deepen peaceful nuclear cooperation based on a mutual commitment to nuclear non-proliferation,” said both governments in a joint statement on the signing of the US-Singapore 123 Agreement.
In South-east Asia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand all have an interest in nuclear power, with some looking to build a nuclear power plant in the next decade or so. Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam have also signed the 123 Agreements with the US.
About 123 Agreements
In 1954, the United States enacted the Atomic Energy Act. Before the United States can conduct a significant nuclear export, Section 123 of the Act requires the United States have an agreement with the relevant country which meets specified criteria – hence the shorthand of “123 Agreement.”
123 agreements establish a legally binding framework for peaceful nuclear cooperation (e.g., the transfer of U.S. origin special nuclear material, the export of nuclear fuel, reactors and equipment) between the united states and partners.
The criteria require 123 agreements to legally obligate our partners to observe specific standards in a multitude of areas including peaceful uses;
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards (technical measures through which the IAEA seeks to verify that nuclear material is not diverted from peaceful uses); physical security of nuclear materials; and prohibitions on enriching, reprocessing, and transfer of specific material and equipment without our consent. (List of countries that have signed 123 agreements)
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Sweden To Cooperate with US For New Reactors
- Stockholm says move is important for green transition and global competition with China
(NucNet) Sweden and the US have signed a memorandum of understanding to increase bilateral nuclear cooperation as Stockholm increases measures to make it possible to put into place new reactor capacity with a total output of at least 2,500 MW by 2035. The MOU was signed in Washington by Sweden’s minister for energy, business and industry Ebba Busch and US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm.
The MOU was signed in Washington by US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm (left) and Sweden’s minister for energy, business and industry Ebba Busch. Image: DOE.
Busch said in a statement that the MOU “is good for Sweden, the United States, the labor market and competitiveness.” She said: “Our countries enjoy longstanding and good relations and I look forward to strengthening our cooperation and knowledge exchange in the area of nuclear power.”
Busch told Politico E&E News after the signing that bilateral nuclear cooperation is important for the “green transition” and global competition with China.
“Europe is now learning a very hard lesson on being so dependent on China, when it comes to rare earth metals and minerals,” Busch said. “This is the reason why we are so actively hunting down strategic partnerships with countries with whom we share the same values.”
The Swedish government said in a statement that the MOU means that Sweden and the US will exchange experience on issues related to policy, research and innovation related to supply chains, financing models, skills supply and development of advanced nuclear fuel. (Westinghouse has one of its three global nuclear fuel fabrication facilities in Vasteras, Sweden)
“Both Sweden and the United States have extensive experience of nuclear power and there are plans in both countries to develop it,” the joint bilateral statement said.
Late last year Sweden’s parliament approved a bill allowing more nuclear reactors to be built than planned, scrapping the previous cap of 10. New laws will also allow construction of nuclear reactors at sites other than existing ones. Parliament also established a new energy policy goal of a completely fossil-free electricity system by 2040, which includes nuclear power.
The current government, which took office last year led by the conservative Moderate Party, in coalition with the Liberals and the Christian Democrats, has taken a number of measures to remove barriers and create better conditions for new nuclear power.
Stockholm’s Ambitious Nuclear Plans
Sweden’s nuclear energy plan calls for new nuclear power with a total output corresponding to at least two large-scale reactors to be in place by 2035. By 2045 it wants a further expansion that could correspond to at least 10 new large-scale reactor or about 10 GWe of carbon emission free electrical generating capacity.
The government also appointed a national coordinator for the expansion of nuclear power who called on Stockholm to establish an organization that can oversee its ambitious plans for the deployment of large-scale nuclear reactors and SMRs. Carl Berglof, the coordinator, of said the new organization would manage activities and resources common to several nuclear power projects.
Sweden’s six existing nuclear plants are at three sites: Forsmark, Oskarshamn and Ringhals. According to International Atomic Energy Agency data, nuclear energy provided 28.6% of the country’s electricity generation in 2023.
Sweden-based power company Vattenfall announced earlier this year that it had shortlisted Rolls-Royce SMR, a 470 MW PWR, and GE Hitachi’s BWRX-300 SMR designs in an ongoing evaluation to potentially deploy new reactors at its existing Ringhals nuclear site in southwest Sweden.
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Progress Seen on NRC Construction Permit for Texas based Natura Resources MSR
Natura Resources Research Alliance in a press statement said it is making progress in its application for a construction permit for a molten salt reactor to be built at Abilene Christian University.
According to the NRC website, the safety review for the construction permit is on track to be completed this year. The NRC posted on its Progress Status Dashboard for the research reactor construction license that the review is one-third complete as of July 2024.
The reactor is a low-power molten salt research reactor to support academic research. The fuel will be high assay low enriched uranium (HALE). dissolved in Flibe salt. The plant will not produce electricity.
The molten salt reactor project is a joint effort by the Natura Resources Research Alliance which is composed of Abilene Christian University (ACU), the Georgia Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin. The reactor will be licensed and deployed as the Natura MSR-1 system at Abilene Christian University at the home campus in Abilene, TX.
The construction permit application was submitted in August 2022. Detailed design engineering of Natura MSR-1 system began with with Zachry Nuclear Engineering in July 2023.
In a separate action, Natura Resources, LLC (Natura) has entered into a new partnership with the Texas Produced Water Consortium (TxPWC) at Texas Tech University to look at the deployment of Natura’s liquid-fueled molten salt reactor (LF-MSR) technology to power the Permian Basin. The region, which covers a large land area in west Texas and eastern New Mexico, is a major producer of oil and gas.
The firm said the partnership provides an opportunity to deploy Natura’s LF-MSR technology to provide additional sources of reliable, dispatchable energy paired with produced water treatment facilities to supply two new forms of critical resources for the state of Texas.
“We are proud to partner with the Texas Produced Water Consortium and excited for the opportunities that this Fortifying the Future partnership presents,” said Doug Robison, Founder and President of Natura Resources.
“Natura has deep-seated roots in the Permian Basin oil and gas industry, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to bring our molten salt reactor technology to the Permian to meet the critical needs for both energy and water.”
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