Kairos Power has commissioned an automated inspection and laser-marking system for its nuclear fuel pebbles, adding a new quality-control capability as the company prepares for upcoming reactor hardware tests and the future deployment of its Hermes 2 demonstration plant.
The custom-built system is operating at the company’s Manufacturing Development Campus in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It measures individual fuel pebbles against manufacturing specifications, records their characteristics, and engraves each one with a unique tracking code.
Kairos Power is targeting 70,000 inspected pebbles for upcoming testing platforms, including its second Engineering Test Unit (ETU). The company says the same inspection and tracking capability will support the future Hermes 2 plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The milestone addresses a practical challenge in developing pebble-based nuclear reactors: maintaining consistent manufacturing quality while tracking individual fuel elements throughout testing and operation.
Kairos Power is developing fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor technology that uses spherical fuel elements, commonly called pebbles. Before the pebbles enter testing platforms or are prepared for transport, the new automated line subjects them to a series of quality checks.
The system measures each pebble’s diameter, geometry, and density in real time to confirm it meets manufacturing specifications. High-precision lasers then scan the exterior surface at the micron level to assess its structural integrity.
Automating these checks allows the company to process pebbles while collecting standardized measurements for individual records. The resulting data can help engineers identify manufacturing variations and improve subsequent production campaigns.
Rather than relying solely on batch-level records, the system links inspection results to each pebble, providing more detailed information about the fuel elements entering tests.
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