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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.
M. Nakamichi, J. H. Kim
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 66 | Number 1 | July-August 2014 | Pages 157-162
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-745
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Advanced neutron multipliers with low swelling and high stability at high temperatures are desired for the pebble bed blankets of demonstration fusion power (DEMO) reactors. Beryllium intermetallic compounds (beryllides) such as Be12Ti are the most promising material for this purpose. To fabricate the beryllide pebbles, a new granulation process has been established that combines a plasma sintering method for beryllide synthesis and a rotating electrode method using a plasma-sintered electrode for granulation. In trial granulation examinations, prototypic beryllide pebbles 1 mm in diameter were successfully fabricated. This study describes the results of a crush test and the characterization of the oxidation properties of the prototypic beryllide pebbles compared with those of Be pebbles. The crush test revealed that the prototypic beryllide pebble was more brittle than a Be pebble, and its crush load is one-third that of a Be pebble. The oxidation experiment showed that the weight gain ratios of the prototypic beryllide pebbles were significantly smaller than those of pure Be pebbles. The results confirmed that the prototypic beryllide pebbles have better oxidation resistance than pure Be pebbles.