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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.
E. G. Vovkivsky, A. Yu. Chirkov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 81 | Number 8 | November 2025 | Pages 848-857
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2025.2454130
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To analyze the energy balance, the range of optimal parameters of the quasistationary burn phase of p-11B plasma is assessed under conditions of fuel refill and external energy supply. The reaction rate parameter is determined considering the difference in the macroscopic velocities of the fuel components. An increase in the corresponding relative energy from 0 to 100 keV leads to an increase in the plasma power gain Q by a factor of 3. Regimes with Q ≈ 5 correspond to npτ ~ 1021 m–3s, where np is the proton density and τ is the confinement time. These conditions are close to optimum from the point of view of the fuel burnout rate, energy transfer to plasma from the generated high-energy alpha particles, and bremsstrahlung losses associated with their accumulation in the plasma. Also, to assess the influence of the content of alpha particles, a mode with a reduced confinement time of alpha particles is considered. In such a mode Q > 5 can be achieved.