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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.
B. M. Rothleder
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 100 | Number 4 | December 1988 | Pages 479-489
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE88-A23581
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Measurements made during cycle 1 operation of Commonwealth Edison Company’s Zion Unit 2 pressurized water reactor core were used to validate the Electric Power Research Institute Advanced Recycle Methodology Program. In addition to the usual reaction rate and axial trace measurements for determining power distributions, gamma scan measurements were available to provide additional data to validate the calculated power shapes. The parallel occurrence of gamma scan measurements and standard nuclear instrumentation measurements provided a unique opportunity to intercompare the results of these measurement methods. The calculated X-Y gamma scan behavior supported the behavior of the calculated X-Y reaction rates. The measured X-Y gamma scans were found to be more accurate than the measured X- Y reaction rates, with the latter showing significant differences among some symmetrically located assemblies. For both types of measurement, however, the modeling of the asymmetrically loaded assembly located furthest in the core periphery produced the poorest results. The axial gamma scan calculation proved very accurate except at the inlet and outlet regions.