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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.
John J. Roberts, R. F. Fleming, Harold P. Smith, Jr.
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 27 | Number 3 | March 1967 | Pages 573-580
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE86-A17624
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The logic of the time-optimal solution to the xenon shutdown problem for a point reactor model has been successfully applied to an actual reactor system. Spatial integration of the flux-square weighted xenon concentration was used. The predetermined power variation with time successfully held the xenon boundary and created a final shutdown (target) trajectory whose maximum was within three percent of the specified boundary based on the total reactivity variation of the program. Although digital computer calculation, occasionally using trial-and-error techniques, was necessary to predict the power-time shutdown program, the computer requirements were not excessive. Approximately 7 h of additional reactor operation was utilized to prevent a 16 h period during which xenon buildup would have prevented reactor operation.