ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2026
Nuclear Technology
June 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2026
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.
M. D. Nornberg, M. W. Bongard, M. T. Borchardt, S. J. Diem, B. A. Kujak-Ford, J. A. Goetz, B. T. Lewicki, J. A. Reusch, C. Rodriguez Sanchez, C. E. Schaefer, A. C. Sontag, J. D. Weberski, G. R. Winz
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 82 | Number 1 | January-February 2026 | Pages 45-55
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2025.2457254
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Developing nonsolenoidal plasma initiation techniques for spherical tokamaks in particular, and tokamaks in general, provides an attractive option for designing fusion energy systems without relying on induction from a central solenoid. The Pegasus-III Experiment is a newly upgraded facility dedicated to developing nonsolenoidal tokamak startup through magnetic helicity injection and microwave injection techniques. The main driver of the upgrade is a new toroidal field (TF) coil and power supply to enable startup demonstrations under conditions similar to larger facilities. Operating the TF coil up to 0.6 T requires adding 10 kW of water cooling to the center stack conductors and monitoring the TF bundle temperature and strain during the current pulse. The chilled water system is designed to minimize copper corrosion from low-conductivity water. Strain gauges and thermocouples are mounted at key locations on the TF coil structure. Their measurements agree with electrothermal heat transfer and stain calculations. The new facility has begun experiments at 0.6 T, demonstrating the startup of a tokamak plasma without a central solenoid.