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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.
Changjun Li, Dahuan Zhu, Xiangbin Li, Junling Chen
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 4 | May 2021 | Pages 310-315
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1874765
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The W-1%Y2O3-0.5%Ti composite fabricated by the spark plasma sintering method has been tested on the EMS-60 facility using 0 to 600 MW/m2 with pulse duration of 5 ms for single and 100 cycles. It is shown that the cracking threshold under single pulse of the W-1%Y2O3-0.5%Ti is close to 300 MW/m2, which exceeds that of pure tungsten (~200 MW/m2). Moreover, the crack morphology is different than that of pure W under the same heat load condition. These experimental data illustrate that the addition of dispersed oxides and alloying elements can, to some extent, ameliorate high heat load behaviors. Meanwhile, it should be noted that the melting and volatility of the second phase if the heat flux exceeds 400 MW/m2 for a single pulse will narrow the operation range of the composite. And, the severe damages of crack and matrix melting under fatigue shocks illustrate that the composite still needs further efforts to be improved by the optimization of fabrication processing.