On August 18, eight construction and educational institutions came together to form the Nuclear Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Precast (NuCAMP), in part focused on “developing vocational training for skilled workers in East Tennessee to support the deployment of advanced nuclear reactors.” Led by California-based Kairos Construction, the group already has plans for international collaboration.
Kairos Power was founded in Alameda, California in 2016, with the intent to develop small modular (smr) reactors based on its molten salt pebble-bed reactor design, which requires no external cooling (water) source. The company—which has an AI-related contract with Google—has as its mission to “standardize” nuclear plant construction, including using precast concrete forms and computer-driven large-scale additive manufacturing processes. In April, 2026, Kairos broke ground on a 50MW Hermes II “demonstration” SMR at their site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Partnering with Kairos in the NuCAMP project are four educational institutions—University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Roane State Community College, Chattanooga State Community College, and Oak Ridge Schools—along with the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI, an industry group specializing in developing new construction materials), Barnard Construction Company and the Oak Ridge Labs itself. After a 12-month orientation period, the group plans to include Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction Group, Cambridge Vacuum Engineering, and possibly others in their dealings.
“Delivering affordable advanced reactors at scale will require more than a strong design. We need ... people with the right skills to apply them in building new nuclear facilities,” said Ed Blandford, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Kairos Power. “By combining industry perspectives with the R&D power of our national labs and the strengths of our academic partners through NuCAMP, we can create new capabilities that will benefit the entire Tennessee nuclear community and the broader industry at large.”
