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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.
Yoshihiro Yamane, Kazuma Tanaka, Kojiro Nishina, Hajime Tamagawa, Seiji Shiroya
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 76 | Number 2 | November 1980 | Pages 232-245
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE80-A19453
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method is proposed to derive three kinetic parameters of a zero-power coupled-core system, namely coupling reactivity Δ, mean neutron transit time , and neutron generation time Λ of respective cores, from the measured frequency responses. In the experimental determination of the parameters, the analytical expression of coupling kernel and its frequency dependence, which are derived from the moderator region response function, are taken advantage of. For experimental determination of the parameters as well as frequency response, experiments were carried out with a pile oscillator installed in the Kyoto University Critical Assembly, a light-water-moderated and -reflected critical assembly. The variation of kinetic parameters with the core distance, in particular, was observed with special attention. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated by close agreement in the first two of the above three parameters between the theory and the experiment.