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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.
D. B. MacMillan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 26 | Number 3 | November 1966 | Pages 366-372
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE66-A17358
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Several statistical estimators that may be used in neutron Monte Carlo calculations are compared by means of idealized problems. The objective is to evaluate these estimators for use in the study of neutron thermalization and thermal neutron behavior by Monte Carlo techniques. It is concluded that the minimum variance linear combination of the analog estimator and the modified path length estimator (proposed recently by Spanier) is the best of these estimators for such applications. Where computer limitations require the use of a simple (rather than a combination) estimator, the modified path length estimator is recommended.