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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.
C. Rubbia, M. Carta, N. Burgio, C. Ciavola, A. D'Angelo, A. Dodaro, A. Festinesi, S. Monti, A. Santagata, F. Troiani, M. Salvatores, M. Delpech, Y. Kadi, S. Buono, A. Ferrari, A. Herrera Martínez, L. Zanini, G. Imel
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 148 | Number 1 | September 2004 | Pages 103-123
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE04-A2445
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The TRiga Accelerator-Driven Experiment (TRADE), to be performed in the TRIGA reactor of the ENEA-Casaccia Centre in Italy, consists of the coupling of an external proton accelerator to a target to be installed in the central channel of the reactor scrammed to subcriticality. This pilot experiment, aimed at a global demonstration of the accelerator-driven system concept, is based on an original idea of C. Rubbia. The present paper reports the results of some neutronic analyses focused on the feasibility of TRADE. Results show that all relevant experiments (at different power levels in a wide range of subcriticalities) can be carried out with relatively limited modifications to the present TRIGA reactor.