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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.
Ernesto C. Vanterpool, Rudolf E. Slovacek, Donald R. Harris, Robert C. Block
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 110 | Number 2 | February 1992 | Pages 186-194
Technical Notes | doi.org/10.13182/NSE92-A23888
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Interrogation neutrons from 3 eV to 3 keV are used to determine the relative sensitivity of a spent light water reactor fuel assembly assay system. The fuel assay system used for this measurement consists of three threshold fission chambers installed in the Rensselaer intense neutron spectrometer, a 75-t lead slowing-down-time spectrometer at the Gaerttner Linac Laboratory. The fission chambers detect fission neutrons from a simulated fuel assembly, an aluminum enclosure filled with depleted uranium oxide (0.2% 235U), and a 235U (93%) metal foil sample placed at various locations throughout the assembly. The measurements with the assembly are compared with a Monte Carlo analysis of an homogenized pressurized water reactor fuel assembly. This is concluded to be a practical method for the assay of spent fuel.