ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2026
Nuclear Technology
July 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
W. Breitung, K. O. Reil
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 105 | Number 3 | July 1990 | Pages 205-217
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE90-A19186
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A sample of (U,Pu)-mixed oxide was fission heated along the saturation line and into the compressed liquid regime. The density of the sample at temperatures around 7000 K was determined from the onset of the liquid-phase pressure signal. Values for the compressibility of the (U,Pu)-mixed oxide were determined from the slope of the measured pressure/time signal. Based on these results and earlier measurements, new relations are proposed for the following properties: the density/enthalpy, density/temperature, thermal expansion/temperature, and isothermal compressibility/temperature relations. The ranges of validity are 1400 to 3600 kJ/kg and 3120 to 7600 K, respectively. The property relations are recommended for both liquid UO2 and (U,Pu)O2 with yPu ≤ 0.25. The measured data strongly suggest that the critical temperature of (U,Pu)O2 is well above 8000 K.