Kairos Power says Hermes demo reactor draws on Oak Ridge legacy, aims for 2028 criticality

Kairos Power and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) outlined a close technical partnership and an accelerated timetable for an advanced demonstration reactor during a Sound of Science podcast episode produced by ORNL.

Ed Blanford, chief technology officer at Kairos Power, said the company's technology "has very strong roots in Oak Ridge proper," and described Hermes as a two-step demonstration: a low-power unit to prove systems and a second unit capable of supplying electricity to the grid. "The first will operate at low power and the second will be capable of supplying electricity to the grid," he said.

The guests and hosts traced the project's heritage to ORNL's midcentury work on molten salt reactors and to the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), which the podcast said went critical on June 1, 1965, ran uranium-233 three years later, and logged more than 13,000 hours at full power before shutting down in 1969. Dave Poynter of ORNL's nuclear energy and fuel cycle division described that work as foundational: the MSRE "was really the first demonstration that this technology could be used successfully."

Blanford explained Kairos's safety and design approach as a hybrid that pairs Triso particle fuel with a fluid-fuel coolant. He said that combination produces a distinct safety case that, in turn, affects building design and economics: "Operating plants at higher temperature but lower pressure actually allows us to design the building and have a safety case that's different from the plants that operate today."

The guests discussed practical site work at the Hermes construction location, saying early stages required removing 1950s-era footers, duct banks and electrical conduit left from Cold War-era uranium enrichment facilities. Blanford called that work "a sense of humility" when building on land with that history.

On schedule, podcast participants reported that Kairos aims for Hermes 1 to go critical in the 2028 timeframe and set an aggressive goal of getting electricity on the grid by about 2030. Hosts and guests emphasized those are fast timetables compared with traditional nuclear projects and that industry follow-through will be critical to sustain momentum: "It's on the industry to actually deliver," Blanford said.

The episode presented the partnership with ORNL as central to Kairos's development strategy. Blanford described ORNL as "the convening laboratory for molten salt reactor research" and said the companies will collaborate on fuel development and manufacturing methods at the lab's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility.

The podcast closed the discussion by stressing both opportunity and responsibility: speakers welcomed the technical lineage from ORNL and said the coming years will test whether advanced reactors can be deployed quickly, safely and cost-effectively.

The podcast episode did not announce regulatory approvals, final licensing decisions, or commercial electricity deliveries; the timetable cited is Kairos's stated target.