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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.
Kazunori Takahashi, Daiki Sato
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 1 | May 2013 | Pages 395-397
doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16966
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
High density helicon plasma is produced by a 13.56 MHz rf discharge under an IGBT-pulsed expanding and strong magnetic field, where the compact solenoid (inner diameter of 10 cm and 616 turn) is used for the formation of the magnetic field. The solenoid current is pulsed by the IGBT device with a pulse width of 20-40 msec. The solenoid current and the resultant magnetic field strength are proportional to the charging voltage to the capacitor. In the presently used solenoid and circuit, the maximum current and the resultant field strength are about 56 A and 3 kGauss, respectively. For the rf power of about 700 W, the high density plasma of about 4 × 1012 cm-3 is achieved. Above the field strength of about 1.6 kGauss, the source plasma density is constant, while the downstream density increases due to the suppression of the radial loss of the plasma particles.