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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.
A. Mehta, P. Chakraborty, R. K. Fotedar, E. Rajendrakumar
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 65 | Number 2 | March-April 2014 | Pages 299-307
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-659
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Liquid lead-lithium (Pb-Li) eutectic alloy is one of the promising materials for tritium breeding as well as cooling of fusion reactors. The major issues involved in the production of this eutectic alloy include (a) effective mixing, (b) avoiding the stratification of Pb and Li, (c) minimizing the formation of intermetallic compounds by controlling the temperature, and (d) avoiding the formation of oxides and nitrides of Pb and Li in the cast. In this regard, an attempt has been made to mix lead and lithium using a magnetohydrodynamic stirring technique by the application of a rotating magnetic field. A precalculated amount of liquid lithium has been injected into a circulating lead melt at high pressure and temperature. The mixture has been heated at a controlled temperature and stirred continuously through magnetic induction to produce Pb-Li eutectic. Characterization of the alloy through scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, and density measurement techniques indicates the formation of eutectic composition at the center of the cast, though higher lead concentrations are obtained toward the bottom.