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The deadline arrives: Checking in on the Reactor Pilot Program
On May 23, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14301, “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the DOE,” which instructed the Department of Energy to create a Reactor Pilot Program (RPP)—a new system in which companies could pursue DOE authorization to build and test their first-of-a-kind nuclear technologies. EO 14301 set an ambitious goal for that program: three reactors achieving criticality by July 4, 2026.
Massimo Zucchetti
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 852-856
Advanced Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29451
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Three types of fusion reactors, based on DT, DD and DHe fuel cycles, are compared from the first wall neutron-induced radioactivity point of view. Some of the definitions of low-activity, based on hands-on recycling, remote recycling, “U.S.” shallow land burial and deep geological confinement waste management criteria, are discussed. A three-classes rank of low-activity is proposed. The analysis of the induced radioactivity in first-wall steels shows that the long-term activity remains at high levels in DD and DHe cases too. DD and DT first-wall steels can be classified in none of the above-mentioned low-activity classes. Neutron induced radioactivity in some of the main constituting elements for the first-wall varies, when turning from DT to DD or DHe irradiation conditions. This depends on the different ways by which the long-lived radioactive nuclides are produced. Materials selection and low-activation alloys development, in order to minimize activity, will be necessary also for the first walls of fusion reactors based on advanced fuel cycles.