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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.
Christopher C. Pain, Matthew D. Eaton, Jefferson L. M. A. Gomes, Cassiano R. E. de Oliveira, Adrian P. Umpleby, Kemal Ziver, Ron T. Ackroyd, Bryan Miles, Antony J. H. Goddard, H. van Dam, T. H. J. J. van der Hagen, D. Lathouwers
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 144 | Number 3 | July 2003 | Pages 242-257
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE03-A2357
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Previous work into the space-dependent kinetics of the conceptual nuclear fluidized bed has highlighted the sensitivity of fission power to particle movements within the bed. The work presented in this paper investigates a method of stabilizing the fission power by making it less sensitive to fuel particle movement. Steady-state neutronic calculations are performed to obtain a suitable design that is stable to radial and axial fuel particle movements in the bed. Detailed spatial/temporal simulations performed using the finite element transient criticality (FETCH) code investigate the dynamics of the new reactor design. A dual requirement of the design is that it has a moderate power output of ~300 MW(thermal).