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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.
Stefano Segantin, Bamidele Ebiwonjumi, Ethan Peterson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 81 | Number 5 | July 2025 | Pages 437-447
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2024.2400762
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this work, we benchmark OpenMC against the FNG-ITER streaming experiment. FNG-ITER streaming, a high-quality experiment carried out at the ENEA laboratories in Frascati, Italy, was initially included in SINBAD (Shielding Integral Benchmark Archive and Database). More recently, the benchmark was included in the Compilation of Nuclear Data Experiments for Radiation Characterization as well. It consists of a neutron shielding experiment with a rather complex geometry that constitutes an appropriate validation study for the use of weight windows within OpenMC. Measurements include flux detection via four different types of activation foils divided into three batches and a set of thermoluminescent detectors for nuclear heating. The OpenMC results are in very good agreement with those of MCNP and the experimental measurements, with the majority of the discrepancies within the combined statistical error and experimental uncertainty (less than 10% computed measured discrepancy).