The reactor of choice is the GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300, a Generation III+ boiling water design rated at 300 MWe per unit — enough to power roughly 300,000 homes

Decision Lens

The TVA-Kairos-Google PPA is the first U.S. utility agreement to route advanced reactor output directly to AI data centers — setting a commercial template that board and procurement teams will reference in every SMR conversation through the 2030s.

90-Second Brief

This week, oak Ridge has emerged as the operational center of America’s SMR build, with two distinct reactor developers, TVA and Kairos Power, advancing separate technologies on adjacent sites. TVA submitted its SMR construction permit application to the NRC in May 2025, the first U.S. Utility to do so, and secured $400 million in DOE cost-share funding in December 2025, targeting commercial operation of a 300 MWe BWRX-300 reactor by 2032. Kairos Power, building a 50 MWe molten salt Hermes 2 reactor, has already signed a PPA with TVA under which TVA will deliver equivalent clean power to Google AI data centers in Tennessee and Alabama starting in 2030.

What’s Actually Happening

TVA is pursuing what it describes as America’s first commercial SMR at its 935-acre Clinch River Nuclear Site in Oak Ridge. The reactor of choice is the GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300, a Generation III+ boiling water design rated at 300 MWe per unit — enough to power roughly 300,000 homes. The NRC granted TVA an early site permit in 2019, approving up to four SMRs at the location. Site preparation is substantively complete: a five-lane bridge engineered to carry the reactor pressure vessel and other heavy equipment is in place, alongside upgraded roads, 161,000-volt power lines, and potable water infrastructure. TVA submitted its construction permit application to the NRC in May 2025 and is coordinating with Ontario Power Generation, which is pursuing a parallel BWRX-300 deployment in Canada.

In December 2025, the Department of Energy selected TVA to receive $400 million in federal cost-shared funding to accelerate deployment, reduce financial risk to consumers, and support a target of commercial operation by the early 2030s — with TVA executives aiming for 2032.

Kairos Power is building on a separate 207-acre Oak Ridge parcel, on the former footprint of the K-33 Gaseous Diffusion Plant. Its first reactor, Hermes 1, is a 35 MWt non-electric heat demonstration unit under active construction: foundation piers have been drilled to nearly 50 feet into bedrock, with the seismic isolation system and reactor building concrete pads as the next milestones. Hermes 2, the 50 MWe electricity-generating successor, is the unit tied to the Google PPA and is targeted for power delivery by 2030. The NRC has issued two construction permits for both Hermes reactors and approved 14 topical reports supporting the licensing basis for Kairos’s fluoride salt-cooled design — an unusually advanced regulatory position for a Generation IV technology.

The Kairos design uses molten fluoride salt (FLIBE — the same chemistry validated in ORNL’s Molten Salt Reactor Experiment in the 1960s) as coolant, and TRISO fuel particles embedded in graphite pebbles as fuel. The system operates at near-ambient pressure, which eliminates the coolant-loss risk inherent in water-cooled designs. The fuel physically cannot melt or release radiation under high-temperature excursions. Kairos is vertically integrating fuel, salt, and critical components — including vessel fabrication in its ASME-certified shop in Albuquerque — to control supply chain risk ahead of commercial deployment.

In August 2025, TVA and Google announced a PPA under which Kairos Power sells electricity from the Hermes 2 power plant to TVA’s grid starting in 2030; TVA then delivers an equivalent amount of power to Google AI data centers in Montgomery, Tennessee, and Jackson County, Alabama. The structure allows Google to capture clean energy credits while giving Kairos Power a commercial offtake anchor that accelerates its licensing and deployment timeline. Under a broader Master Plant Development Agreement, Kairos Power plans to build a fleet of dual-unit reactors by 2035 generating up to 500 MWe for Google’s AI data centers.

Beyond these two projects, TVA has seeded additional partnerships in the Oak Ridge area: with Oklo on what would be the first privately funded nuclear fuel recycling facility in the U.S.; with BWXT on domestic nuclear supply chain development; and with Type One Energy on a fusion stellarator at the retired Bull Run fossil plant site. The concentration of federal, utility, and private capital in one geography is deliberate and visible on the ground.

Why It Matters for Global Heads of Data Center Energy?

  • From a budgetary standpoint, the TVA-Kairos-Google PPA structures advanced nuclear output as a utility-delivered product — meaning finance teams can model it against existing PPA frameworks rather than treating SMR offtake as an exotic instrument. The 500 MWe Kairos fleet target for Google by 2035 reveals the volume ambition behind this approach.

  • From an operational standpoint, the 300 MWe BWRX-300 at Clinch River, if it reaches commercial operation in 2032 as targeted, will generate electricity more than 90% of the time — delivering the capacity factor that solar and wind cannot match for baseload AI workloads running 24/7.

  • From a regulatory standpoint, TVA’s first-mover status as the only U.S. utility with an active NRC SMR construction permit application creates a live licensing data set. The pace of NRC review will be the clearest leading indicator of whether other utilities can realistically replicate this structure before 2035.

  • From a competitive standpoint, Google has secured contractual access to the first advanced reactor electricity delivery in U.S. history. Hyperscalers watching this move need to assess whether equivalent PPA structures will be available in other markets — or whether first-movers are locking up limited SMR capacity.

  • From a workforce standpoint, TVA expects up to 9,000 workers at peak SMR construction, with Kairos Power’s Oak Ridge headcount growing from 60 to more than 200 over the next five years — signaling real capital commitment, not planning documents.

The Forward View

The next 30–90 days will surface two critical signals: the pace of NRC review of TVA’s construction permit application (any procedural milestone or schedule guidance from the commission will recalibrate the probability of a 2032 commercial operation date), and Kairos Power’s submission of the Hermes 1 operating license application, which the company has stated it plans to file this year. Progress on either front will sharpen the risk-adjusted timeline that procurement teams need to decide whether SMR offtake belongs in near-term portfolio modeling or remains a 2030s optionality play.

Peer Moves

Google has executed the first AI data center PPA tied to advanced reactor output, contracting through TVA to receive clean energy equivalent to Kairos Power’s Hermes 2 generation starting in 2030, with a Master Plant Development Agreement targeting 500 MWe of Kairos fleet capacity by 2035.

What We’re Uncertain About?

  • NRC construction permit timeline for TVA: The commission is actively reviewing the application submitted in May 2025, but no decision date has been published. What resolves it: NRC docketing schedule updates or formal review milestone announcements.
  • Kairos Power commercial fuel supply chain: The company is vertically integrating HALEU TRISO fuel production, but mass manufacturing at commercial scale has not yet been demonstrated. What resolves it: Hermes 1 operating license application filing and NRC topical report approvals on fuel qualification.
  • PPA pricing and basis risk structure: The TVA-Kairos-Google agreement is confirmed, but the economic terms — including how locational marginal price exposure is allocated — are not public. What resolves it: regulatory filings or utility rate case disclosures by TVA.
  • Replicability outside TVA’s service territory: TVA operates as a federal utility with unique authority. Whether other ISOs or RTOs can support equivalent advanced reactor PPA structures under existing tariff frameworks remains unresolved. What resolves it: FERC guidance or a second utility executing a comparable agreement in a competitive market.

One Question to Bring to Your Team

If TVA’s Clinch River SMR reaches commercial operation in 2032 and Kairos delivers 500 MWe to Google by 2035, what is our window to negotiate comparable advanced reactor offtake before available capacity is committed — and which markets have the regulatory framework to support it today?

Sources

  • Oakridger — Touring Oak Ridge’s future nuclear energy hub: TVA and Kairos Power (Link)

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