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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.
Peter H. Titus, L. Dudek, M. Smith, A. Brooks
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 2 | September 2015 | Pages 416-422
Technical Paper | Proceedings of TOFE-2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-993
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade (NSTX-U) is currently under construction at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) It is scheduled to start operations early in 2015. Upgrade designs were analyzed and qualified prior to the beginning of construction, but many issues arose during manufacture and assembly that required adjustments in design and analysis of components. Some designs relied on testing that occurred after final design when the actual material and processes were selected by vendors or in-house shops. Design of some components, like the bus bars, was deferred until field run interferences could be identified. Some components used materials that did not meet original specifications. New materials or processes had to be found and components sometimes needed requalification. PPPL responsible or “Cognizant Engineers” (COG’s) and analysts worked closely to work out resolution of issues and perform redesign and reanalysis. Revisions to calculations were prepared and filed. Some significant items addressed during the construction period (or Title III in DOE parlance) are selected for more detailed discussion.