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Over the past two weeks, in the “Trivia Tuesday” and “Throwback Thursday” sections of Nuclear News Daily, we have dug into the story of Idaho National Laboratory’s official list of reactors, past and present, at the site. We are now bringing that exploration to Newswire, compiling the research done for the Daily and extending the conversation further.
For just over a year, President Trump’s Executive Order 14301, “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy,” has loomed large because it pegged a stretch goal to a significant date: July 4, 2026. Will there be at least three participants in the Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program whose reactors achieve criticality by Saturday’s deadline?
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 forerunner to the R1, which is the company’s flagship design. The R1 is a sodium heat-pipe-cooled, TRISO-fueled microreactor. The Mark 0 is distinct from the R1 in that it is configured for zero-power criticality testing and as such is equipped with neither power conversion nor heat removal systems.
For Antares, this development represents a key validation of its reactor physics, control systems, and supply chain.
Advanced nuclear energy start-up Antares has announced the close of a $96 million Series B funding round, led by Shine Capital with participation from Alt Capital, Caffeinated, FiftyThree Stations, Industrious, and other investors. The round raised $71 million in new equity capital and $25 million in debt for equipment, factory build-out, and uranium procurement.
The Department of Energy made conditional commitments yesterday to provide high-assay low-enriched uranium to three companies: reactor developer Antares Nuclear; fuel fabricator Standard Nuclear; and Natura Resources, which is backing Abilene Christian University’s development of a small Molten Salt Research Reactor and pursuing a commercial reactor design of its own. Following a contracting process, some of the companies “could receive their HALEU later this year.”