Construction has started in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on a small 35 MW (thermal) reactor based on the Kairos fluoride salt reactor technology. These reactors will use solid TRISO fuel, but the reactor coolant will be a molten fluoride salt fluid. (See the recent post about the HTR-PM in China that uses TRISO fuel.) This first test reactor in Tennessee will not generate electricity, but will demonstrate how a reactor of this type behaves. This will be a first-of-a-kind for this type of nuclear reactor.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved construction of the Hermes reactor last December. More about the Kairos reactor here, if interested.
- Pete