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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.
Yuming Gu, Jun Li, Jianglong Wei, Yahong Xie, Lizhen Liang, Chundong Hu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 2 | August 2017 | Pages 148-156
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1319718
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A prototype negative ion source is in development toward the giant negative ion source for the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor neutral beam injection system at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The multiaperture and multichannel grids are the most challengeable during the construction of the prototype negative ion source. The research and development activities for the grid manufacturing method were carried out and divided into detailed design, implementation, and testing phases. Based on a special manufacturing process involving the vacuum brazing technique, some prototype grids were produced. Two prototypes have similar structures to the extraction grid of the prototype negative ion source except for the reduced number of cooling channels. A testing campaign (including dimension inspection, leak tests, thermal imaging tests, and magnetic tests) was carried out. The results demonstrate that the manufacturing process and construction technology can meet the requirements of the extraction grid and can promote the construction of other grids or components having a similar structure.