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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.
Ken Nakajima, Masanori Akai, Takenori Suzaki
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 119 | Number 3 | March 1995 | Pages 175-181
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE95-A24083
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The modified conversion ratio (MCR) (the ratio of the 238U capture rate to the total fission rate) in a light-water-moderated uranium-plutonium mixed-oxide- (MOX-) fuel lattice was measured for four types of lattices with different plutonium enrichment. In the current method, the relative reaction rates of 238U capture and total fission were obtained from nondestructive gamma-ray spectrometry of 239Np and fission products, respectively, which accumulated in the fuel rod irradiated at the Tank-Type Critical Assembly. The measured results of the fission rates derived from two different fission products agreed well with each other, and the measured MCRs showed good agreement with the results of the Monte Carlo calculation with the whole-core model. Therefore, the current nondestructive method is applicable to the MCR measurement of MOX fuel.