Hermes 2

Kairos Power LLC; Hermes Test Reactor; Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued an Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for Kairos Power LLC's request to amend Construction Permit No. CPTR–6 for the Hermes test reactor facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The amendment extends the latest construction completion date from December 31, 2026, to April 30, 2029. Delays stem from non-nuclear demonstrations of first-of-a-kind construction techniques and more extensive site preparation than planned, including removal of legacy structures requiring coordination with the Department of Energy. The NRC concluded the amendment introduces no new construction activities, no additional land disturbance, and no significant radiological or non-radiological environmental impacts beyond those already evaluated in NUREG–2263.

Kairos Power, LLC; Hermes 2; Environmental Assessment, Finding of No Significant Impact, and Exemptions

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued an Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for a construction permit application by Kairos Power, LLC to build the Hermes 2 test reactor facility at the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The facility would consist of two fluoride-salt cooled, high-temperature reactors using solid tri-structural isotropic fuel in pebble form, collocated within a few hundred feet of the previously permitted Hermes 1 single-unit test reactor. The NRC determined that all potentially affected environmental resource areas would experience SMALL impacts, and that no full Environmental Impact Statement was required. To reach this conclusion through an EA rather than an EIS, the NRC granted exemptions from three regulatory provisions (10 CFR 51.20(b)(1), 10 CFR 51.25, and 10 CFR 51.75(a)), relying in part on the recent Hermes 1 EIS that covered the same site and found SMALL impacts across all resource areas.