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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.
Curtis Walters, Ethan Alger, Suhas Bhandarkar, Kurt Boehm, Tom Braun, Francisco Espinosaloza, Benjamin Haid, Ricardo Heredia, John Kline, Bernard Kozioziemski, Jeremy Kroll, Daniel Malone, Abbas Nikroo, Patrick Opsahl, James Sater, Alex Zylstra
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 3 | April 2018 | Pages 305-314
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1397488
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) using targets containing a deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel layer have, until recently, required that a high-quality layer of solid D-T (herein referred to as an ice layer) be formed in the capsule. The development of a process to line the inner surface of a target capsule with a foam layer of a thickness that is typical of ice layers has resulted in the ability to field targets with liquid layers wetting the foam. Successful fielding of liquid-layer targets on NIF required not only a foam-lined capsule but also changes to the capsule filling process and the manner with which the inventory is maintained in the capsule. Additionally, changes to target heater power and the temperature drops across target components were required in order to achieve the desired range of shot temperatures. These changes and the target’s performance during four target shots on NIF are discussed.