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2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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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.
R. Dubey, Gokuldas H., K. Czerski, M. Kaczmarski, A. Kowalska, N. Targosz-Ślęczka, S. Thulichery, M. Valat
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 82 | Number 3 | April 2026 | Pages 572-585
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2025.2520724
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the study of very low-energy fusion reactions, where the cross section drops by many orders of magnitude, measuring the fusion products with minimal uncertainties and free from natural background interference is quite challenging. The present work focuses on qualitative and quantitative assessment of NE113 plastic scintillators, NE213 liquid scintillators, and NaI(Tl) detectors for such studies. All scintillator detectors are calibrated using standard gamma sources , , and and are compared with Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations. A gamma spectrum and neutron unfolding procedure is developed for these detectors with the help of these simulations. To verify this method, an experiment was performed to measure the fusion products from deuteron-deuteron fusion reactions induced by a 10-keV beam on a Zr metallic hydride environment. The results show that the NE113, NE213, and NaI(Tl) scintillator detectors, along with the developed gamma spectrum unfolding procedure, can qualitatively analyze complex gamma spectra with reasonable accuracy.