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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.
Vinod Kumar, D. C. Sahni
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 76 | Number 3 | December 1980 | Pages 282-294
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE80-A21318
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method has been developed to calculate the fundamental mode decay constants in two- and three-dimensional pulsed neutron moderator assemblies using the separable form of the scattering kernel in the transport equation. The method uses the Fourier transform of the integral transport equation and is an extension of the method developed by Sahni to treat monoenergetic criticality problems for two- and three-dimensional geometries. The new kernel of the integral transform equation is factored into components depending on only one of the dimensions of the assembly. This property is further exploited by use of a single Fourier mode approximation in one or more dimensions while the kernels in the remaining dimensions are retained in their respective forms. In our numerical work, three simple forms of the scattering cross section are used for calculating the matrix elements of the relevant equations accurately. Numerical results are presented for the asymptotic decay constant in a one-dimensional slab, a one-dimensional cylinder, two-dimensional infinite rectangular prisms, and three finite cylinders of different height-to-diameter ratios. The relation between the asymptotic decay constant and the geometrical buckling in the transport and diffusion approximations are also calculated for interpreting the results in terms of extrapolation lengths.