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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.
Chang An Chen, Xin Zhou, Zhanlei Wang, Bo Wang, Lingbo Liu, Xin Xiang, Yong Yao, Jiangfeng Song
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 1 | January 2018 | Pages 34-42
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1368333
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Chinese (CN) Helium Cooled Ceramic Breeding (HCCB) Test Blanket Module (TBM) (CN HCCB TBM) set with its ancillary systems will demonstrate the feasibility of in-pile tritium production/breeding in ITER for fuel self-sufficiency and high-grade fusion energy conversion to heat and extraction for a future magnetic confined fusion reactor. Tritium release in some major components of the recently designed TBM systems through permeation and natural leakage was estimated with simple diffusion/permeation and leak rate calculation models. Results showed that because of the tritium permeation barrier coating for tritium confinement in some tritium containments, total tritium release to the environment by permeation in the CN HCCB TBM and ancillary systems will be kept well below 2 Ci/full-power day. However, tritium release through natural leakage from components can be neglected compared with permeation. Equipped with ITER tritium safety guarantee facilities like the tritium monitoring and detritiation systems, tritium release from CN TBM system–caused radiological safety issues will be well controlled.