Mission Brief: Antares
Antares is preparing for a future of resilient power in any setting – on Earth or beyond. With Nominal’s edge automation, storage, and analytics layers, they unify real-time testing, long-term data retention, and remote autonomy in a single loop. From the first sensor readout to final operational oversight, Antares now tests continuously on every reactor they build.
Mission brief
- Founded
- 2023
- Headquarters
- Torrance, California, USA
- Mission
- Abundant Energy throughout the Solar System.
- Core Technology
- Transportable nuclear micro-reactors powered by HALEU TRISO fuel – designed for autonomous operation over three years in harsh conditions.
- Key Customer
- Antares is providing resilient energy to the DoD, DoE, and NASA ahead of pursuing critical commercial markets in mining, manufacturing, data centers, and remote grids.
- Operational Focus
- Antares targets sites where no other power solutions can provide the necessary capabilities and energy density, including military installations and space missions.
Reliable, resilient energy is the backbone of national security. Without it, there is no mission assurance.
The challenge: Moderator thermal performance
Our materials have to operate in some of the most extreme environments imaginable. The ability to swiftly and accurately test our lab-scale demonstration builds has been critical to evaluating new hardware and iterating designs at our rapid pace. We needed a continuous approach that captured every reading – no matter how fast or remote.
Antares’ micro-reactors rely on complex thermal management systems to transfer heat to the power conversion system – conducting through the core to the graphite moderator under neutron impingement and irradiation. Thermal energy is then transported into a phase-changing fluid in the heat pipe to the primary heat exchanger, where a working fluid absorbs the heat ahead of later expansion in the cycle’s turbomachinery. The test setup is instrumented with flow meters, thermocouples, and pressure transducers to capture multiple signals in real time, characterizing the system’s performance. Antares needed a continuous testing and data acquisition approach that could:
- Stream multiple types of data at extremely high resolution
- Calculate performance metrics based on live data
- Aggregate and analyze run data across R&D and eventual full-scale manufacturing.
- Operate both in lab settings and remote, sealed environments where local control is key.
Nominal in action
Real-time monitoring & edge automation
Thermocouples feed controllers to make sure temperatures and power rates are within safe margins. If signals drift, Nominal flags the deviation and can trigger an automatic abort, cooldown, or reconfiguration. Operators can watch every wave, but the system executes with or without on-site staff.
Unified storage & compute
All timestamps and measurements flow into Nominal’s data warehouse. In-house software can tap this data in real time – no more rummaging through scattered logs. R&D and production lines share the same source of truth, with consistent tags and versioning on every test.
Analytics & operations at scale
Antares teams across multiple states collaborate while overlaying current waveforms on historical runs, spotting microtrends or repeat anomalies. As designs move from R&D to manufacturing certification, the same test approach follows. Predictive checks and automated defect detection unify the entire workflow – synchronizing data from test cells, final acceptance, and operational monitoring.
Wins
Immediate Feedback. Constant checks catch thermal anomalies before they threaten safety or performance.
Shared Data, No Bottlenecks. Engineers see the same data at the same time, creating a live feedback loop from design to production.
Faster Iteration & Certification. Moderators move through tests more often with fewer manual steps—scaling capacity in lockstep with reactor manufacturing.
Nominal has been a game changer for sharing data in our testing. It allows for live streaming and almost instantaneous sharing between us and our partners across the country.
Propelling toward sustainable power
Antares is preparing for a future of resilient power in any setting – on Earth or beyond. With Nominal’s edge automation, storage, and analytics layers, they unify real-time testing, long-term data retention, and remote autonomy in a single loop. From the first sensor readout to final operational oversight, Antares now tests continuously on every reactor they build.
All Reactors Nominal.
