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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.
R. W. Schaefer, R. M. Lell, R. D. McKnight
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 145 | Number 1 | September 2003 | Pages 84-96
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE03-A2365
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Numerous criticality safety benchmarks have been, and continue to be, developed from experiments performed on Argonne National Laboratory's plate-type fast critical assemblies. The nature and scope of assemblies suitable for deriving these benchmarks are discussed. The benchmark derivation process, including full treatment of all significant uncertainties, is explained. Calculational results are presented that support the small uncertainty assigned to the key derivation step in which complex geometric detail is removed.