Google has deal with advanced reactor developer Kairos Power
Google parent company Alphabet is seeking to reduce the cost of constructing new nuclear reactors by deploying a series of small modular reactors (SMRs) through its partnership with developer Kairos Power, Alphabet’s president and chief investment officer Ruth Porat told a conference earlier this week, according to media reports.
Porat was quoted by CNBC as telling the CERAWeek conference in Houston, US, that the public and private sectors should move “as soon as possible” to build a series of new plants that replicate the construction process to drive down costs.
“If we don’t start now in a focused way and replicate a number of them, which is why the Kairos multi tranche is an important kind of proof point, we’re not going to be able to drive down the cost curve,” Porat said.
Google and Kairos Power announced a deal in October 2024 that would see the tech company buying power generated by seven reactors to be built by Kairos, a seven-year-old California-based startup.
The agreement targets adding 500 MW of nuclear power starting at the end of the decade, the companies said. The first reactor could be online by 2030 and additional reactors by 2035.
The units for Google will include a single 50-MW reactor, with three subsequent power plants that would each have two 75-MW reactors, Kairos said at the time.
Kairos is developing advanced fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (KP-FHR) technology.
Construction of Hermes 1, a pilot 35-MWt version of the KP-HFR, began in July at the Oak Ridge site after a construction permit was issued in December 2023.
In November 2024, the company received greenlight from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to proceed with construction of the two-unit Hermes 2 facility. It will be the first electricity-generating Generation IV plant to be approved in the US and will build on learnings from the Hermes 1 demonstrator.
Big tech companies are increasingly looking to nuclear power, particularly SMRs, as a possible means to meet an expected rise in energy demand driven by artificial intelligence, data centres and cloud computing.
