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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.
V. O. Uotinen, J. H. Lauby, W. P. Stinson, S. R. Dwivedi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 44 | Number 1 | April 1971 | Pages 66-71
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE71-A18906
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ratio βeff/l has been deduced from reactor noise measurements in several uniform light-water lattices in the Plutonium Recycle Critical Facility. These lattices included one in which the fissile material was slightly enriched uranium, one in which the fissile material was plutonium, and five lattices in which the fissile material contained both uranium and plutonium. These measurements supply a set of experimental data over a range of plutonium enrichments that are applicable to plutonium recycle situations in thermal reactors. The measured values of βeff/l range from 33 ± 3 sec−1 for a lattice of Al-Pu rods to 153 ± 8 sec−1 for a lattice of UO2 rods. Calculated values of βeff/l, obtained with a straight-forward reactor design calculational method, are in good agreement with measured values.