Antares Microreactor Achieves Criticality

Some news from Idaho: "Antares achieves zero-power criticality at INL" The article relates:

    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.

    For Idaho National Laboratory, where the Mark-0 is sited, this development represents the first novel reactor to achieve criticality at the lab in more than 50 years, according to laboratory director John Wagner. Mark-0 is the 53rd reactor to be built at INL since 1949.    

The microreactor did not produce excess power, but this was just a test to show that the design works. They are a few months from testing the power conversion system.