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2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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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.
G. Bitelli, R. Martinelli, F. V. Orestano, E. Santandrea
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 28 | Number 2 | May 1967 | Pages 270-276
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE67-A17477
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The results of critical experiments, performed with organic-moderated platetype assemblies containing uranium enriched to 90% in 235U, in the zero-power reactor ROSPO, are reported. Several cores, differing in critical radius (19.5 to 47.5 cm) and in the ratio of uranium-to-stainless-steel plate number, have been investigated. The comparison with the reactivities calculated by a standard two-group calculation procedure shows an overestimate of the eff's (up to 1.95% for the smallest critical core) with a systematic dependence on the core radius. A satisfactory agreement is found for large-size cores (R ≥ 40 cm). It is shown that simple calculational improvements, such as a four-group evaluation of the nuclear constants, and a more detailed treatment of core-radial reflector interface zone, lead to a homogeneously good agreement (within 0.25% ) over the whole range of core dimensions.