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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.
Musharaf Rabbani, Anthony Busigin, Haiqin Mao, Nisa Halsey, Dayna La Barbera
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 3 | April-May 2024 | Pages 330-339
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2232227
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tritium is used as a fuel in nuclear fusion, and water detritiation is an important part of the overall fusion fuel cycle. This paper compares two competing technologies for an ITER-scale water detritiation reactor, namely, the advanced water distillation (AWD) and combined electrolysis and catalytic exchange (CECE) processes. The processes are compared in terms of equipment size and footprint, energy demand, isotope separation characteristics, safety, and technology readiness level. An important technical concern discussed is management of deuterium accumulation since deuterium is enriched along with tritium and D-T separation is inherently more difficult than H-T separation. Interfacing with a downstream isotope separation system is also discussed.