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Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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Latest News
Antares achieves zero-power criticality at INL
Leveraging more than $140 million in private capital fundraising, over 322,000 square feet of operational manufacturing space, and multifaceted partnerships with the Departments of Energy and Defense, reactor start-up Antares has become the first company involved in the Reactor Pilot Program to achieve zero-power fueled criticality—a full month ahead of the July 4 deadline set by President Trump’s Executive Order 14301.
This milestone, announced yesterday, was achieved with the company’s Mark-0: a sodium heat-pipe-cooled, TRISO-fueled microreactor. The Mark-0 is a forerunner to the company’s flagship design, which it calls the R1. For Antares, this development represents a key validation of its reactor physics, control systems, and supply chain.
Technical Session|Sponsored by RPD|Cosponsored by THD
Wednesday, November 18, 2020|2:40–4:20PM EST
Session Chair:
Benjamin R. Betzler
Session Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Pavel V. Tsvetkov
Staff Producer:
Jay Bogardus (American Nuclear Society)
To access the session recording, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
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To access paper attachments, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis of Core Criticality for the Transformational Challenge Reactor
Jianwei Hu (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Brian J. Ade (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Benjamin R. Betzler (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Paper
AI Optimization of the Reactor Unit Cell to Support TCR Optimization
Briana D. Hiscox (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Vladimir Sobes (University of Tennessee Knoxville), Emilian Popov (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Richard Archibald (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Benjamin R. Betzler (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Kurt A. Terrani (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Design and Modeling of Regulating Control Elements for the Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR)
Joseph R. Burns (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Phillip Chesser (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Peter Wang (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Eliott Fountain (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Ben R. Betzler (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Brian J. Ade (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Aurelien X. Bergeron (Argonne National Laboratory)
