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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.
Richard E. Kaiser, William R. Kimel
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 20 | Number 4 | December 1964 | Pages 468-475
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A20989
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Several methods are available for the determination of thermal diffusion length. In general, those based on one-group diffusion theory are subject to the assumption of a particular source boundary condition. Errors introduced by the assumption of such boundary conditions usually result in incorrect prediction of the relative harmonic content of the thermal flux at different elevations in the pile. The effect of these errors on diffusion-length determination is to cause inconsistency in the results as additional data points taken close to the source are included. A method is presented whereby the constants Amn in the one-group thermal-flux equation are determined experimentally and used in the determination of diffusion length. This method is then compared with other methods using one-group and age-diffusion theory with respect to the consistency of results obtained.