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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.
Carlos E. Velasquez, Graiciany P. Barros, Claubia Pereira, Maria Auxiliadora F. Veloso, Antonella L. Costa
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 3 | October 2015 | Pages 625-629
Technical Paper | Proceedings of TOFE-2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-949
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Different first wall material proposals based on tungsten alloy WNiFe, WLa2O3, W1.1TiC, W26Re, beryllium alloy S-B65, stainless steel SS316 and graphite have been studied in the last years. These materials must be capable of withstanding high temperature and neutron flux. Nevertheless, using hybrid systems, the first wall material choice could influence the criticality system due to the different properties of each material. To analyze this influence, two hybrid reactors were evaluated. The first one is a Tokamak based on magnetic confinement and the second one based on inertial confinement. Both systems contain a transmutation layer with reprocessed fuel spiked with thorium. The results showed the principal nuclides affected in the transmutation layer and the differences in the criticality due to neutron flux variations produced by the changes in the first wall material.