TVA, Kairos Partner to Deploy Molten Salt Nuclear Reactor Demonstration

[NNadir]

This looks like Per Peterson's design:

In a notable, dedicated effort by a major U.S. utility to boost the development of an advanced reactor technology, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Kairos Power, developer of a novel fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature nuclear reactor, on May 6 said they will team to demonstrate Kairos’ Hermes test reactor at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

As part of their agreement, TVA will provide engineering, operations, and licensing support to help California-based Kairos Power deploy its “low-power” demonstration reactor. According to Kairos, Hermes is a 50-MWth test reactor that will integrate the Kairos Power Fluoride Salt-Cooled High-Temperature Reactor (KP-FHR) as part of a cost- and risk-reduction–focused development pathway that ultimately envisions commercial deployment of a 140-MWe “KP-X” plant.

“Kairos Power’s singular objective for deploying the Hermes Reactor is to demonstrate the capability to deliver an advanced reactor at the costs necessary to make nuclear power the most affordable source of dispatchable electricity in the United States,” it said on Thursday.

The KP-FHR concept, which bagged a $303 million federal award under the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) risk reduction pathway last December, essentially uses molten fluoride salt as a low-pressure coolant (rather than water, which is used in conventional nuclear reactors). The design also uses fully ceramic tri-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) particle fuel in pebble form, and a high-temperature superheated steam cycle to “convert heat from fission into electricity and to complement renewable energy sources,” the company says...

Molten Salt Nuclear Reactor Demonstration

I'm not a TRISO kind of guy, but any reactor capable of high temperatures is fine with me.

We will need high temperature nuclear reactors if we're even going to have a poor shot at addressing climate change. Without nuclear reactors we have no chance of addressing climate change.

[John ONeill]

1. high temps

Any reactor capable of low temperatures is fine by me as well - for example, the Chinese one being built for district heating, a pool-type at ambient pressure and below 100C, or the similar Czech one, that would use heavy water and repurposed used fuel from a VVER440. https://www.dw.com/en/czech-researchers-develop-revolutionary-nuclear-heating-plant/a-57072924

[NNadir]

2. Well, OK, but I'm heavily into heat networks.

High efficiency gets more exergy per unit of mass and makes it possible to extend energy to those who lack it.

Any nuclear energy is superior to any other form of energy, but we should use it wisely.

I'm fond of the Dupic approach, but I think we can do even better with once through uranium.