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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.
Hiroshi Takahashi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 41 | Number 2 | August 1970 | Pages 259-270
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE70-A20712
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Monte Carlo method is applied to calculate the reactivity change due to a moving reflector block in the pulsed fast reactor system. This reactivity change is an important quantity in the determination of the power pulse width. In the important region of small displacements about the maximum reactivity point, the reactivity change is so small that the ordinary Monte Carlo methods, using the importance sampling, Russian roulette, or splitting techniques, require prohibitively long calculation times. To avoid this difficulty, a new Monte Carlo method, which directly calculates the geometry coefficient of reactivity due to a geometry perturbation, is developed by adopting the method used in the calculation for the Doppler coefficient by Olhoeft. The formulation of the new method is discussed. The GEMCM code for this geometry perturbation, which is made by modifying the 05R code, is described. Finally, an analysis of the critical experiment for the pulsed fast reactor is carried out using this method and the applicability of the method is discussed.