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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.
Paul Michael
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 18 | Number 1 | January 1964 | Pages 130-136
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A18150
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Methods of calculating the “Snell Experiment” (the exponential experiment in natural uranium) are examined. It is found that integral transport theory is required for accurate predictions. The effect of spatial transients upon measured quantities is studied and it is found that experiments have not been done in a large enough mass of uranium to achieve an asymptotic neutron distribution. However, deviations from the asymptotic values of integral quantities are not large, and corrections are calculated and applied to recent experiments. It is shown that the use of recent cross-section data improves the agreement between theory and experiment. The relaxation length and all spectral indices are in fairly good agreement except for Np237-to-U238 average fission cross section ratio.