Advanced reactors
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A Demonstration Plant for the TVA Grid: Kairos Power Breaks Ground on Hermes 2
Kairos Power said on April 17, 2026 that it had broken ground on Hermes 2 in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a reactor it calls the first power-producing Gen IV reactor to receive a construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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Advanced Reactors and Operating Plants: Meta's Nuclear Energy Agreements of January 2026
On January 9, 2026, Meta announced nuclear energy agreements with three companies, after what it calls its nuclear RFP process. Two support advanced reactors still to be developed, with dates given "as early as" or "targeted," and one buys energy from nuclear plants already operating.
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A Second Round of Conditional Selections: The Energy Department's Fuel Line Pilot Projects for Advanced Reactors
On September 30, 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy picked four companies for a pilot program to build advanced nuclear fuel lines. Each "will be responsible for all costs" of its fuel fabrication facilities, the release says, and the fuel is for "research, development, and demonstration purposes."
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Conditional Commitments, and Contracting as a Next Step: The Energy Department's Second Round of HALEU
On August 26, 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy made conditional commitments to provide high-assay low-enriched uranium, HALEU, to three more U.S. companies. The fuel, the release says, is not currently available from domestic suppliers, and contracting is a next step.
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Financing and contracts Power contracts
A PPA for an Advanced, GEN IV Reactor: Google, Kairos Power and TVA on Hermes 2
On August 18, 2025, Google, Kairos Power and the Tennessee Valley Authority announced a new collaboration in which, through a power purchase agreement between Kairos Power and TVA, Kairos Power's Hermes 2 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, will deliver energy to the TVA grid that powers Google data centers in Tennessee and Alabama. The release says that output will be "generated by a single reactor, scheduled to begin operations in 2030."
