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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.
E. Linn Draper, Jr.
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 46 | Number 1 | October 1971 | Pages 31-41
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE71-A22333
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Integral fission rates were measured for 232Th, 233U, 235U, 236U, 238U, 237Np, 239Pu, 248Pu, 241Pu, 241Am, 232mAm, and 243Am in four tailored epicadmium neutron spectra. The fission rates were determined by counting fission fragment tracks in solid-state track recorders. The measured and calculated fission rates differed by <7% for 232Th, 233U, 238U, 236U, and 237Np in each spectrum. There is evidence that the 232Th, 238U, and 237Np differential data need slight normalization corrections. Plutonium-239, 240Pu, 241 Pu, 241 Am, 242mAm, and 243Am each exhibited larger deviations of measured from calculated activities than the lighter nuclides. The magnitude of the deviations varied from one spectrum to another for some materials, indicating the possibility of not only magnitude but also shape uncertain-ties for the differential cross sections.