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Latest News
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.
Arno Vankrunkelsven, Kris Dylst, Yves D’Joos
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 81 | Number 4 | May 2025 | Pages 294-299
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2024.2361198
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the field of decommissioning and decontamination, multiple difficulties arise. The main issues in tritium decontamination are due to its ability to permeate through virtually any material. As a result, the release of tritium from contaminated materials is affected by multiple parameters, complicating the exact characterization and choice of the decontamination strategy. Research efforts by the decontamination and clean-up processes group at SCK•CEN are currently concentrating on two different projects. In the first project, the dismantling of an obsolete tritium installation is evaluated. Parts of this installation have tritium inventories in the MBq/g range. Tritium release using several cutting techniques and the tritium inventory of the resulting cut parts and secondary materials, such as sawdust and cutting curls, is investigated. The second project concerns the detritiation and safe conversion of tritiated NaK into less reactive carbonates.