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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.
Caichao Jiang, Chundong Hu, Yahong Xie, Yongjian Xu, Shiyong Chen, Qinglong Cui, Yuanzhe Zhao, Yuanlai Xie
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 3 | October 2017 | Pages 496-499
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1347460
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The RF ion source is the most promising ion source, which can be operated with steady state. When the Radio Frequency (RF) ion source works, the key point is how to transmit and couple the RF power to the plasma with the RF power transmission unit. In this technical note, the principle of RF matching network was analyzed and designed. The RF power transmission unit was tested on RF ion source test bed. Based on the experimental data, the function of each components of impedance-matching network is analyzed and optimized. The results show that matching network can keep high RF coupling efficiency with variable plasma parameters and decreases the reflected RF power.