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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.
Hong Ran, Binbin Song, Jilai Hou, Dangshen Zhang, Yuncong Huang, Le Tang, Qinwei Yang, Zen Cao, Xiaoqiang Wu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 7 | October-November 2021 | Pages 549-556
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1884490
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The HL-2M tokamak is an upgraded device of the HL-2A tokamak. As one of the main components of the HL-2M, the vacuum vessel (VV) is required to have a reliable structure and be manufactured with well-established methods. The HL-2M VV is designed with a D-shaped cross section, double-thin-wall structure that consists of the inner shell, outer shell, ribs, and ports. The whole torus is welded with 20 sectors. Inconel 625 has been selected as the main material of the VV because of its good mechanical properties and high resistivity. The structural analysis is performed using ANSYS. The results show that the VV can meet the design requirements. The manufacturing process of the VV is described in detail. The VV was completed in March 2019, and the HL-2M device achieved its first plasma discharge in December 2020.