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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.
A. Leonard
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 32 | Number 3 | June 1968 | Pages 342-349
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE68-A20216
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A transport calculation of the lattice diffusion length, yielding the “gross” decay of the asymptotic flux in a lattice, is made using the method of K. M. Case. Refinements over the diffusion calculation are shown to be 1) slight adjustments in the slab widths due to boundary effects, and 2) the appearance of exact homogeneous diffusion lengths as calculated by transport theory. The extension to “asymptotic” time-dependent problems is also given. For the neutron-wave problem, the complex-valued diffusion length is derived as a function of frequency, and the relation between the time decay constant and the buckling is given for the pulsed-neutron problem. Limiting cases involving very wide slabs are discussed. Finally, some experiments are briefly described for which the analysis of this paper might be applicable.