Kairos Power reposted this
It’s official! We’ve given Kairos Power permits to start building two additional test reactors (and a shared power production system) at the company’s site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Andrea Veil, head of our Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, did the official signing with Peter Hastings, vice president of regulatory affairs at Kairos. We only needed 18 months to finish our review. We applied the technical decisions we’d already reached for the first Kairos test reactor, approved late last year. We’re waiting for the company to apply for an operating license for that first facility, and we’ll continue monitoring construction activities at the site. #AdvancedReactorReady
The standard should be six months. I like the trend, but the word “only” doesn’t belong in front of 18 months unless we’re talking about construction.
Definitely will be following this story! Does this mean the USNRC is creating more of a streamlined process for permitting to shorten review time in the future?
Now if the NRC could use this type of common sence approach for commercial reactors, we might have a revival which we need!!!!!
Congratulations to Kairos Power and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on this milestone! Advancing innovation in nuclear energy is critical, and it's exciting to see this progress toward a more sustainable energy future. We’re proud to support the industry with materials and expertise for cutting-edge projects like these.
Agree with Bob 100%. Let's take Kairos power as the example: for each subsequent application can we expect shorter review cycles? Additionally, and there's a good chance that I'm wrong about this, but isn't this construction site federal land and or using land already designated for nuclear research/development? Curious how this might play out when state and local governments are going to be involved in addition to federal government (not to mention in some cases tribal jurisdictions).
I hope the review process gets better with each iteration and streamlined, straight forward, modern, more efficient, shorter duration and yet without skipping any essential security reviews, follow ups with every few months going forward with the assistance of latest technologies such as AI, Digital Twins etc.,
Common sense finally prevails with the absence of intervention.
Congratulations!Kairos Power
Great to hear this news across the pond. Looking forward to hearing about lessons learned.
Chief Executive Officer at Advanced Clean Energy Consulting
2moI really like the positive move but 18 months to approve a 35Mwth test reactor is way too long. Its a waste of resources. It should have realistically been completed in 6 months or less. So A for getting it done. F for taking 3 times too long. Have to get better or come up with a better way.