We've fired up our first sodium heat pipe! 🔥

At Antares, we are prioritizing pragmatic and reliable solutions.  The R1 is a heat pipe reactor that leverages Sodium (Na) thermosyphons to cool the core and route thermal energy to our power conversion system.  Shown above is one of our heat pipes working at full power and temperature.  No moving parts, no complex ducting, and no actuation - only the laws of physics and phase change fluids.

The R1 is designed to be mass-produced and operated in the most austere environments without access to specialized equipment or teams of operators.  Heat pipes provide the most robust means to passively cool our systems and allow for containment to be built into the system.  Heat pipes lend themselves to factory-scale production and are key to the function and manufacturability of the R1.