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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. Seifritz
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 49 | Number 3 | November 1972 | Pages 358-369
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE72-A22548
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A theory for determining the ratio of the prompt to the delayed neutronic response, Wp/Wd, of a self-powered vanadium detector using methods of stochastic processes are described. Experimental data are also presented. The technique makes use of the inherent reactor noise; it is based upon cross correlating the fluctuating detector current signals from the actual vanadium detector and from a (purely prompt responding) cobalt self-powered detector, both of which are located in a power reactor close to each other. Both the analysis in the time domain and in the frequency domain were used to extract the ratio Wp/Wd. The measurements were performed at the Halden Boiling Water Reactor at 7 MW(th) and the ratio Wp/Wd of a commercial vanadium detector has been determined to be (6.5 ± 0.35)%. The technique described offers several advantages over the commonly used transient measuring method.