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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.
I. E. Knudsen, H. E. Hootman and N. M. Levitz
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 20 | Number 3 | November 1964 | Pages 259-265
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A19567
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This new, dry process employs fluidization and particle-coating techniques and involves direct conversion of uranium hexafluoride to a solid, (uranyl fluoride), by hydrolysis with steam followed by reduction of the uranyl fluoride to the dioxide by reaction with steam-hydrogen mixtures. Process studies were carried out in 3-in.-diameter Monel reactors. The uranium-hexafluoride/steam reaction was conducted continuously at relatively low temperatures, about 200 C, at a uranium hexafluoride rate equivalent to 174 lb uranium h-1 ft-2 of reactor cross section and a steam rate of about 3.25 times the stoichiometric requirement. Seed addition was required to offset particle-growth effects. Uranium losses to the off-gas were less than 0.01% of the hexafluoride fed. Reduction of the uranyl fluoride to the oxide was demonstrated in batch tests. Low-fluoride (<250 parts/106 residual) material was consistently produced in four hours at 650 C and in seven hours at 600 C using a 50:50 mixture of steam and hydrogen. Pellet-fabrication tests on dioxide powders ground to -325 mesh gave sintered densities of about 94% of theoretical.