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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. Smith, Y. Zhai, G. Loesser, W. Wang, V. Udintsev, T. Giacomin, A. Khodak, D. Johnson, R. Feder, J. Klabacha,
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 2 | September 2015 | Pages 407-411
Technical Paper | Proceedings of TOFE-2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-990
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Diagnostic First Walls (DFWs) were designed to handle the plasma nuclear and radiant heating along with electro-magnetic loading induced from plasma disruptions. The DFWs also provide custom viewing apertures for the diagnostics within. Consequently, the DFWs contain numerous complex water cooling channels and are designed per ITER SDC-IC for design by analysis.
This paper presents the analyses of the Upper Port DFWs proceeding to a final design review. The finite element analyses (FEAs) performed include neutronics, radiative heating, coupled fluid dynamics and heat transfer, and static and transient structural analysis using the combined multi-physics load conditions. Static structural FEAs performed account for the dynamic amplification effects of the transient load. A detailed bolt analysis was also performed per the ITER SDC-IC bolt evaluation based on reaction loads obtained from the mechanical simulations.