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August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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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.
Walter H. D'Ardenne, Henry E. Bliss, David D. Lanning, Irving Kaplan and Theos J. Thompson
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 32 | Number 3 | June 1968 | Pages 283-291
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE68-A20210
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Reactor physics parameters were measured in three heavy water lattices consisting of 0.250-in.-diam, 1.03 wt% 235U metal fuel rods in triangular arrays spaced at 1.25, 1.75, and 2.50 in. The following quantities were measured in each lattice: the ratio of epicadmium to subcadmium radiative captures in 238U (ρ28); the ratio of epicadmium to subcadmium fissions in 235U (δ25); the ratio of radiative captures in 238U to fissions in 235U (C); and the fissions in 238U to fissions in 235U (δ28). These experimental results were used to calculate the following reactor physics parameters for each lattice: the resonance escape probability p, the fast fission factor ϵ, the multiplication factor for an infinite system k∞, and the initial conversion ratio C. Analytical results obtained by using THERMOS and GAM-I are in fair agreement with the experimental results.