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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 340-350
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2224315
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the combined electrolysis and catalytic exchange (CECE) process, the electrolyzer produces both hydrogen and oxygen streams. Hydrogen is typically fed to the bottom of the liquid-phase catalytic exchange column. The oxygen stream, however, is processed and afterward is either fed back to the trickle bed recombiner in heavy water detritiation or released to the exhaust stack in light water detritiation. This paper discusses the handling of the oxygen stream both in heavy and light water detritiation CECE processes. Oxygen leaving the electrolyzer has a trace amount of tritium gas in it as well as water vapor (due to diffusion across the membrane). Trace tritium is converted to vapor using a catalytic converter and then either scrubbed using an oxygen vapor scrubber or captured in a dryer bed. This study analyzes and compares the different options for handling the oxygen stream in a CECE process.