Federal energy provider Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has signed a nuclear power agreement with Google and Kairos Power, making it the first utility in the US to secure a binding deal with a next-generation small modular reactor (SMR) company.

The three companies said the collaboration will address growing US energy demand and reinforce the country’s leadership in advanced nuclear energy.

Kairos, which is developing Generation IV fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (KP-FHR) technology, is planning deployment of a reactor at Oak Ridge in Tennessee that will supply 50 MW to TVA, which provides power to Google’s data centres in Alabama and Tennessee.