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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.
W. S. Yang, T. A. Taiwo, H. Khalil
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 116 | Number 1 | January 1994 | Pages 42-54
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE94-A21480
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Two techniques for solving the mathematical adjoint equations of an interface current nodal method are described. These techniques are the “similarity transformation ”procedure and a direct solution scheme. A theoretical basis is provided for the similarity transformation procedure originally proposed by Lawrence. It is shown that the matrices associated with the mathematical and physical adjoint equations are similar to each other for the flat transverse leakage approximation but not for the quadratic leakage approximation. It is also shown that a good approximate solution of the mathematical adjoint for the quadratic transverse leakage approximation is obtained by applying the similarity transformation for the flat transverse leakage approximation to the physical adjoint solution. The direct solution scheme, which was developed as an alternative to the similarity transformation procedure, yields the correct mathematical adjoint solution for both flat and quadratic transverse leakage approximations. In this scheme, adjoint nodal equations are cast in a form very similar to that of the forward equations by employing a linear transformation of the adjoint partial currents. This enables the use of the forward solution algorithm with only minor modifications for solving the mathematical adjoint equations. By using the direct solution scheme as a reference method, it is shown that while the results computed with the similarity transformation procedure are approximate, they are sufficiently accurate for calculations of global and local reactivity changes resulting from coolant voiding in a liquid-metal reactor.