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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.
S. C. Xiao, Jing Zhao, X. Heng, X. Y. Sheng, Z. Zhou, Y. Yang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 3 | October 2015 | Pages 566-572
Technical Paper | Proceedings of TOFE-2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-907
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this paper, an innovative natural uranium-thorium fuel fusion-fission hybrid reactor (FFHR) design aiming at closed thorium-uranium fuel cycle, and which could operate with high energy gain, fast 233U breeding rate and tritium self-sufficiency, is presented. The reactor consists of two main modules, i.e. natural uranium module and thorium module, which are placed alternately in the blanket’s toroidal direction. Uranium module plays the role of energy generation and neutron multiplication at the initial stage. Excess neutrons are then used to drive the thorium module to breed 233U. After the 233U inventory reaches a certain level, the uranium module is then replaced by new thorium fuel module. The system is transition to the all thorium fueled operating mode. With appropriately selected thorium fuel to water volumetric ratio, the system could then be started by the limited bred 233U. The blanket could reach thorium-uranium closed fuel cycle with high energy gain and tritium self-sufficiency. The system could burn up about 90 tonnes 232Th at the end of 60 years operating.