A final report about whether a California company will receive a key license for a proposed reaction could come after the new year, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said in a social media post.
The NRC's Monday, Nov. 22 Twitter post referred to its recent safety report on Kairos Power's design for a fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactor that would use Triso-coated particle fuel in a pebble bed configuration.
"@NRCgov issues key safety report on Kairos Power's next-gen reactor," the NRC said in its Twitter post. "If approved, a final report could be issued early next year to help license its KP fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactor."
The NRC has been working on the Alameda, California-based power company's design since November 2018.
The NRC's Twitter post linked to a news release, also issued Monday, Nov. 22 about the commission's recent draft safety evaluation report, which recommends initial acceptance of Kairos Power’s reactor proposal. The draft safety evaluation follows Kairos Power's topical report submitted in June that detailed the company’s calculations of how much radioactive material could be released into the local environment during an accident.
The topical report is "the first of its kind" that the NRC has reviewed and is expected to help reduce the risk of licensing and deploying Kairos Power's next generation reactor, the news release said.
Kairos Power developed the reporting method through a cost-shared award from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Kairos Power's fluoride salt-cooled, high temperature reactor would use "robust TRISO fuel," first developed by DOE in the 1960s, and Idaho National Laboratory research indicates the source term for TRISO-based fuel "is significantly less than traditional fuels," further reinforcing the reactor's "enhanced safety and operation," the news release said.
The draft safety evaluation documents NRC’s review of Kairos Power's source term calculation approach and, if approved, the final safety evaluation report could be issued by February 2022.
"This accomplishment strengthens our team's extensive pre-application engagement with the NRC and builds licensing certainty for our advanced reactor technology," Kairos Power Co-Founder and CEO Mike Laufer said in the news release. "In combination with our iterative hardware demonstrations, our licensing engagement contributes to the cost certainty that will be necessary for commercial demonstration and deployment."
