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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.
J. B. Yasinsky
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 39 | Number 2 | February 1970 | Pages 241-256
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE70-A21204
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The results of a numerical study as to the adequacy of the point kinetics method for analyzing rod-ejection accidents are presented. Two-group slab representations of three different seed-blanket reactors are considered. Five different point kinetics formulations are considered for each fictitious rod-ejection accident considered; each formulation being characterized by the shape functions used to calculate the instantaneous reactivity. From these numerical studies we conclude that the accuracy of a point model, for rapid, nonseparable transients of the type considered, is extremely dependent upon the specifics of the particular model (i.e., on the shape function used), and in general one cannot assume a priori that a specific point model is conservative or nonconservative.