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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.
V. V. Verbinski
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 27 | Number 1 | January 1967 | Pages 51-66
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE67-A18042
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Measurements of the spectra of neutrons moderated in LiH were made in the energy range of about 0.01 to 600 eV, and the results were compared with calculated spectra obtained from a Monte Carlo calculation, a direct numerical integration of the Boltzmann equation (NIOBE code), a moments numerical calculation, and three infinite-medium thermalization calculations, each utilizing a different scattering kernel. The measurements were carried out by irradiating slabs of LiH with neutrons having a near-fission spectrum. The spectra of the leakage flux, of the forward-directed flux, and of the scalar flux within the slab were obtained at neutron penetrations of 2.5 to 10 cm. Below 30 eV, the leakage flux and scalar flux attained an asymptotic spectral shape at a penetration of 2.5 cm, and the forward-directed flux at about 5 cm. The shapes of the calculated spectra agree with the shapes of the measured spectra for all energy regions in which each calculation is valid. A large discrepancy between the NIOBE code predictions and the measurements below 0.08 eV is caused by upscattering and molecular binding effects, which are neglected by NIOBE. These effects were included in a neutron thermalization calculation for an infinite medium with a constant source density; however, good agreement with measurement was obtained only for the case in which the measurement had been made in a nearly gradient-free region. In a region of strong flux gradients, the spectrum of the forward-directed flux is shown to be related to that of the scalar flux with good accuracy by the Purohit expression, according to a NIOBE code calculation which yielded both spectra.