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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.
M. E. Abdel-Kader
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 81 | Number 5 | July 2025 | Pages 471-484
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2024.2397619
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The cascade discharge of the hollow plasma device is modeled using the snowplow model. In the model, one or three condenser banks discharge between the two electrodes, with a different time delay. The results were achieved with and without the hollow plasma’s multidischarge cascade. The cascade discharge aims to increase the plasma’s energy to keep the discharge current from breaking down and to keep the plasma column compressed for an extended period. Both the cascade and the single discharges affect the pinching time. The calculated induced magnetic field increases progressively until it reaches the pinch point, and then it decreases, at which point the total discharge current reaches a low value. The magnetic field distribution was calculated as a function of the plasma radius, both with and without the cascade discharge. The model demonstrates that, both with and without a cascade discharge, the magnetic field distribution is low at the tube’s exterior wall and increases toward the axis, reaching a maximum value of 138 kG in the case of a cascade discharge and 42.5 kG with a single discharge. A delay unit resembling the one found in a hollow plasma device is utilized to manually manage the electric circuit discharge simulation.