Google announces an agreement that includes collaboration with Kairos Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority to deploy Kairos Power’s Hermes 2 reactor to power Google’s data centers. The agreement includes the purchase of 50MW of power to the TVA grid which will power Google data centers in the region. This marks the first public announcement from a utility company in the US to buy electricity from an advanced reactor. 

This initial 50 MW deal is set to begin in 2030, with power generation increasing to 500 MW by 2035 to support data center demands. Google and Kairos announced a power purchase agreement last year which bolstered development of the Hermes reactor project. Now, Kairos is increasing the capacity of its original 28 MW reactor design to 50 MW to meet power requirements of this new deal. 

The Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned electric utility and services Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. As of 2020, around 40% of their total power generation came from nuclear power plants and roughly the same amount from coal and natural gas power plants (the rest going to various renewable energies). Incorporating the Hermes reactor will further diversify TVA’s portfolio towards a nuclear one, moving closer to a future powered fully by clean energy sources. 

“Energy security is national security, and electricity is the strategic commodity that is the building block for AI and our nation’s economic prosperity,” TVA President and CEO Don Moul said, adding that the first-of-a-kind agreement “is the start of an innovative way of doing business. By developing a technology, a supply chain, and a delivery model that can build an industry to unleash American energy, we can attract and support companies like Google and help America win the AI race.

Kairos Power’s Hermes 2 reactor is the commercial-scale successor of the demonstration plant. The reactor is a fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor which uses TRISO fuel and a molten fluoride salt coolant. This design aims to achieve high efficiencies with inherent safety features. Recently, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued construction permits for the Hermes 2 test reactor facility. Their dispatch of 50 MW in this power deal will provide enough electricity to supply around 36,000 homes. This number will continue to rise as more deployments are made to meet the 500 MW obligation.

“To power the future, we need to grow the availability of smart, firm energy sources,” said Google’s Global Head of Data Center Energy Amanda Peterson Corio. “This collaboration with TVA, Kairos Power, and the Oak Ridge community will accelerate the deployment of innovative nuclear technologies and help support the needs of our growing digital economy while also bringing firm carbon-free energy to the electricity system. Lessons from the development and operation of the Hermes 2 plant will help drive down the cost of future reactors, improving the economics of clean firm power generation in the TVA region and beyond.”

Kairos Power CEO and co-founder Mike Laufer said the collaboration is an “important enabler” to making advanced nuclear energy commercially competitive. “The re-envisioned Hermes 2 gets us closer to the commercial fleet sooner and could only be made possible by close collaboration with TVA and Google, and a supportive local community,” he said.

“The deployment of advanced nuclear reactors is essential to US AI dominance and energy leadership,” US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said. “The Department of Energy has assisted Kairos Power with overcoming technical, operational, and regulatory challenges as a participant in the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, and DOE will continue to help accelerate the next American nuclear renaissance.”