The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has completed its final safety evaluation for US Kairos Power’s application to build the Hermes 2 advanced test facility at a site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The evaluation concludes there are no safety aspects that would preclude issuing the construction permit for the facility.
The Kairos application requests permission to build the facility with two 35 MWt test reactors, similar in design to the test reactor the NRC issued a construction permit for in 2023. The fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactors would share a power generation system. The company will have to submit a separate application for operating licences in the future.
“We finished our review of Hermes 2 design nearly four months ahead of schedule, and using about 60% fewer resources than expected, using insights from our previous Kairos review,” said Andrea Veil, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. “We remain committed to applying these sorts of lessons learned to maintain safety while promptly and efficiently processing applications.”
Kairos Power’s Hermes 2 is a non-power stepping stone towards deployment of the Kairos Power FHR (KP-FHR). This is an advanced reactor technology that uses TRISO fuel in pebble form combined with a low-pressure fluoride salt coolant.
NRC staff will provide the safety evaluation and the final environmental assessment, which is on track to be completed later this summer, to the Commission for the final phase of the licensing process later this year. The Commission will determine whether the staff’s review supports the findings necessary to issue the permit and will vote on whether to authorise the staff to issue the permit.
Meanwhile, NRC has approved simplified procedures for mandatory hearings on licensing decisions for commercial nuclear power plants and uranium enrichment facilities to make the hearings more transparent and efficient. The changes are effective immediately.
Mandatory hearings, also informally called “uncontested” hearings, for power reactors will involve written materials without oral presentations, with the Commission as presiding officer. Hearings for uranium enrichment facilities will be delegated to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel with case-specific Commission direction for streamlined procedures.
“As the agency prepares for the potential increase in standardised reactor designs and applications for their deployment, it is important to balance efficiency, clarity, and openness in Commission decision-making,” NRC Chair Christopher T Hanson wrote in a memo directing the agency’s Office of the General Counsel to develop proposals for future hearings. “Within the guardrails of our current statutory requirements, I believe significant process efficiencies can be gained.”
The agency is required by law to conduct hearings to determine the sufficiency of the NRC staff’s review before issuing combined licenses, construction permits and early site permits for power reactors, or licenses for construction and operation of uranium enrichment facilities.
