Kairos Power has signed a binding term sheet with Samsung C&T Engineering and Construction Group covering the Hermes 2 demonstration plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Samsung C&T will provide up to $100 million to Kairos through a mix of direct investment and in-kind engineering services, and it has joined the Kairos engineering, procurement and construction team for Hermes 2 and future deployments of the company's reactor technology.
Samsung C&T will focus first on power generation systems and balance-of-plant scope, and its role may expand later in the project.
Hermes 2 is planned as the first power-producing plant for the Kairos Power fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor, known as KP-FHR. It features two 35 MWt units. Kairos received a Nuclear Regulatory Commission construction permit for Hermes 2 in November 2024 and broke ground at the East Tennessee Technology Park in April 2026. The project holds a power purchase agreement signed in August 2025 with the Tennessee Valley Authority and Google, the first such agreement between a U.S. utility and a Gen IV reactor developer.
The first Kairos demonstration unit, the 35 MWt Hermes reactor at the Heritage Industrial Park in Oak Ridge, received its NRC construction permit in December 2023 and is targeted to come online in 2028. Kairos plans a commercial design of 150 MWe made up of two 75 MWe reactor units fueled with high-assay low-enriched uranium. The company holds a Department of Energy contract for HALEU for the first Hermes reactor and is working with BWX Technologies on a potential TRISO HALEU supply for Hermes 2.
Source: ANS Nuclear Newswire - https://www.ans.org/news/2026-09-24/article-8431/kairos-and-samsung-ct-partner-up-on-hermes-2/