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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.
T. F. Wimett, H. C. Paxton
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 78 | Number 4 | August 1981 | Pages 425-431
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE81-A21379
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A critical assembly with circulating enriched uranium solution was operated for brief periods at power up to 2 MW corresponding to a core temperature differential of 13°C. Although delayed neutron precursors were swept out of the critical region, contributing little to control, power followed excess reactivity satisfactorily. At excess reactivity of 0.2 dollar, power oscillations began to appear, and above ∼0.5 dollar they diverged. The 1-s period appears to be associated with vibration of unconstrained piping. Reactivity quench coefficients are greater than those measured without flow. The difference is attributed to macroscopic release of radiolytic gas.