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2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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Breaking ground on a new approach to construction
The drive to Kairos Power’s reactor demonstration site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is not only scenic—it’s historic. Nearly 85 years ago, roughly 30,000 construction workers transformed orchards and farmland into a key Manhattan Project site. Depending on your route, you may pass by one of the three gatehouses that were once military checkpoints controlling access to Atomic Energy Commission production facilities.
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.