New Mexico plant will produce high-purity molten salt coolant
US-based advanced reactor developer Kairos Power has begun construction on a new reactor-grade salt production facility at its manufacturing development campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the company said in a statement.
The facility will produce high-purity molten salt coolant, a key component for the company’s fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor technology (KP-FHR), which will be used for the Hermes demonstrator project at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The KP-FHR technology is cooled by a stable mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride salts, known as Flibe, which allows the reactor to operate at low pressure, contributing to enhanced radiological containment and the reactor’s overall safety.
In July 2024, Kairos started construction on one of the first Generation IV reactors in the US – the Hermes demonstration project. Hermes, which could be operational in 2027 at the Oak Ridge national laboratory, is a non-power version of the company’s KP-FHR plant.
Kairos has also applied for a construction permit for the electricity-generating Hermes 2 test plant, which will also be built at Oak Ridge and will feature two 28-MWt reactor units using the KP-FHR design.
The Hermes units are going to use Triso (tristructural-isotropic) fuel pebbles – particles that contain a spherical kernel of enriched uranium oxycarbide surrounded by layers of carbon and silicon carbide, which contains fission products.
The new salt production facility will use a chemical process to produce large quantities of high-purity Flibe enriched with lithium-7 isotopes, said Kairos. The company’s efforts build upon last year’s successful pilot production of 14 tonnes of unenriched Flibe for a non-nuclear engineering test unit demonstration at Kairos’ Albuquerque campus.
According to Kairos, the first-of-a-kind plant will enable future process optimisation and establish the expertise to scale up reactor-grade Flibe production for a potential commercial fleet.
Kairos said that by internalising the production of critical components and materials, it aims to mitigate supply chain risk, accelerate deployment, and deliver its advanced reactor technology with cost and schedule certainty.
Kairos expects the new facility to create 20-30 full-time jobs, while the project is supported by local and state economic incentives, along with funding from the US Department of Еnergy’s advanced reactor demonstration programme.
