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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.
S. H. Chan, H. H. Tseng
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 71 | Number 2 | August 1979 | Pages 215-227
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-A20415
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In analyzing radiant energy exchange between fuel and coolant in a reactor, it is necessary to know the reflection, absorption, and emission characteristics of the fuel and its interface with the coolant. Because of the unavailability and great uncertainty of these radiation properties, they are calculated from the electromagnetic theory of optics, and results are presented here. Depending on the contacting medium, six types of surfaces received consideration. They are the interfaces between uranium dioxide and sodium, uranium dioxide and steel, uranium dioxide and a gas, water and a gas, steel and a gas, as well as sodium and a gas. The spectral interface reflectance and the spectral absorptance from one side of the medium to the other side are evaluated for all wavelengths. These spectral properties are further integrated to yield the total hemispherical properties for a black body source over a temperature range from 1200 to 6000 K. Comparisons are made with available experimental data or calculated values, and the agreement is found to be generally good.