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2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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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.
P. Pohl , M. Wimmers, T. Kindt, W. Feltes, U. Schmid, H. Jung
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 97 | Number 1 | September 1987 | Pages 64-71
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE87-A23497
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The measurements that were made in recent years to determine the hot and the cold coefficient of reactivity and the corresponding model calculations carried out by both Interatom and Hochtemperaturreaktorbau are described. The effects of the partial load of low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel were of major interest. The cold coefficient is determined in shutdown periods by measuring the subcriticality at different core temperatures. The hot coefficient is determined under operation in connection with a change in coolant outlet temperature at constant power using a calibrated rod curve. In the case of the cold coefficient, experiment and model calculations are in perfect agreement. Calculated values for the hot coefficient are ∼20% lower than the experimental ones. However, neither experiment nor model calculation show any significant change of the hot coefficient when about one-fourth of the core content was being replaced by LEU fuel.