Samsung C&T has agreed to invest up to $100 million to partner with Kairos Power to strengthen its foothold in the US next-generation small modular reactor sector, looking to expand its presence in the global nuclear power market.
According to the Korean builder, it will sign a strategic partnership with Kairos Power, a US advanced reactor firm, during the Climate Week NYC that is now taking place in New York, from Sept. 20 to 27.
Under the partnership, Samsung C&T and Kairos Power will collaborate on the commercial deployment of Kairos Power’s fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor technology, or KP-FHR, to address rising global energy demand.
According to Kairos Power, Samsung C&T’s $100 million expenditure will be spent through a combination of direct investment and in-kind engineering services, subject to regulatory approval, to enable the successful delivery of the Hermes 2 Demonstration Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Through the collaboration, Samsung C&T will have an opportunity to participate in the design and constructability review of Kairos Power’s Hermes demonstration reactor in Tennessee while securing priority to perform engineering, procurement and construction work for future commercial reactors that Kairos Power plans to build in the US.
Hermes is the first non-light-water reactor in more than five decades to receive a construction permit from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and is targeting operations in 2031.