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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.
Joseph A. Naser, Paul L. Chambré
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 79 | Number 1 | September 1981 | Pages 99-109
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE81-A19045
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A technique for solving systems of coupled ordinary differential equations with initial, boundary, and/or intermediate conditions is given. This method has a number of inherent advantages over existing techniques as well as being efficient in terms of computer time and space requirements. Optimal control problems can be solved by this technique by using Pontryagin's Maximum Principle to transform the state equations and their associated performance index into a system of coupled differential equations. An example of computing the optimal control for a spatially dependent reactor model with and without temperature feedback is given.