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.
G. F. Carpenter, N. R. Knopf, E. S. Byron
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 19 | Number 1 | May 1964 | Pages 18-38
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A19786
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The effects of neutron irradiation, post-irradiation annealing and re-irradiation on the Charpy V-notch impact transition temperature of pressure-vessel steels were investigated. Specimens representing several heats of pressure-vessel steels were irradiated at elevated temperatures to fast (> 1 MeV) neutron exposures up to 2 × 1020 nvt. The general observation was that irradiation caused an increase in the transition temperature; however, it was discovered that specimens representing various heats of a given material composition could show a vastly different increase in transition temperature due to irradiation. These results have led to the arbitrary classification of these steels as “sensitive” or “insensitive” heats. Possible correlation of heat to heat sensitivity with microstructure is discussed. Post-irradiation annealing in the temperature range of 650–800 F was found to reduce the effects of irradiation on the transition temperature significantly. However, subsequent re-irradiation of specimens that were post-irradiation annealed at 650 F increased the transition temperature to a level that could not be distinguished from that of specimens that were not annealed prior to re-irradiation. Re-irradiation studies were not conducted on specimens that were post-irradiation annealed at the higher temperatures. No explanation of the re-irradiation behavior after annealing is available.