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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.
J. T. Mihalczo
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 49 | Number 4 | December 1972 | Pages 489-504
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE72-A22568
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Cylinders and cylindrical annuli of uranium metal (93.15 wt% 235U), with diameters varying from 7 to 15 in., were assembled to delayed criticality with graphite reflectors varying in thickness up to 18 in. or with an effectively infinite thickness polyethylene on all outer surfaces. In one series of measurements a polyethylene reflector was also placed adjacent to only one flat surface of the cylinders. The multiplication factor calculated by both Sn transport and Monte Carlo methods, with various sets of cross sections agreed very well with the experimental values. As a result of the high order of Sn and the large number of spatial intervals required, the computing time for the transport theory calculations was a factor of 10 larger than that required for the Monte Carlo calculations with standard deviations of 1%.