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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.
Orrington E. Dwyer, Herbert E. Howe, Edward R. Avrutik
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 12 | Number 1 | January 1962 | Pages 15-22
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE62-A25364
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The liquid-metal-fuel reactor concept, which has received much attention in recent years, in its commonest version is a thermal breeder and employs as a fuel a dilute solution of U in molten Bi. About 28% of the nonvolatile fission products are less reactive chemically than U. This group, customarily referred to as the FPN group, is further divided into three subgroups according to the proposed methods of removal. The FPN-I's would be removed by oxidizing them to chlorides with fused salts, the FPN-II's by precipitating them directly from the liquid fuel, and the FPN-III's by reaction with Zn to form low-density intermetallic compounds which are insoluble in Bi. The FPN-II's, representing about 90% of the FPN's, would be removed continuously, while the others, because of their low yields or relatively low thermal cross sections, would be allowed to build up in the fuel for several years without causing any particular concern. Eventually, however, they would have to be removed. The FPN-I's would be removed by the same continuous process proposed for removing those nonvolatile fission products which are more reactive than U, while the FPN-III's would be removed in a batch process similar to that currently used in the refining of Bi. The following paper includes information on the rates of build-up of the several important FPN elements in the fuel, steady-state concentrations of the FPN-II elements, reactor poisoning level of the FPN's, and experimental results in support of the proposed methods of removal.