ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2026
Nuclear Technology
July 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
P. J. Bendt, H. J. Karr, F. R. Scott
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 4 | Number 6 | December 1958 | Pages 703-708
doi.org/10.13182/NSE58-A15492
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The prompt neutron period of a bare sphere of U235 has been measured at two reactivities between delayed and prompt critical. The x-ray burst from a betatron was used to establish the initial neutron population in the critical assembly, and the neutron intensity was observed by photographing oscilloscope traces of pulses from a spiral fission chamber. The values obtained for α, the reciprocal of the prompt neutron period, are —0.52 ± 0.03 × 106 sec-1 at 54 cents reactivity, and —0.26 ± 0.03 × 106 sec-1 at 76 cents.