Company will also make equity investment and provide in-kind services worth up to $100 million
Kairos Power has picked engineering firm Samsung C&T to help build its 50 MW demonstration reactor for Google, with completion scheduled by 2030.
As part of the deal, South Korea-headquartered Samsung C&T will make an equity investment in Kairos and provide “in-kind” engineering services, the combination of which is worth up to $100m (€87m), Kairos Power said.
The equity investment will make up $70m of the total, Kairos said.
Google first signed a deal with Kairos in 2024 when the tech giant committed to buying power generated by seven reactors to be built by Kairos.
Kairos is building two reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The first, Hermes 1, is a low-power demonstrator that will help the company refine its commercial design. The second, Hermes 2, is Kairos’ first commercial-scale reactor.
Hermes 2 will be a fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor.
Kairos Power says the intrinsic low pressure of fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactors improves safety and eliminates the need for bulky and expensive high-pressure containment structures.
Kairos received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in late 2024 to build the reactors. It expects Hermes 2 to begin operating in 2030, in line with its original agreement with Google.
