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2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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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.
D. Mars, J. N. Inglima, and R. T. Schomer
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 2 | Number 5 | September 1957 | Pages 582-601
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE57-A25426
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A study group comprising personnel from seventeen industrial organizations and working at Brookhaven National Laboratory has evaluated the Liquid Metal Fuel Reactor (LMFR) concept, and has prepared a preliminary design of a large central station power plant feasible for construction in the near future. This paper presents the important characteristics of that design, together with discussions of the economics and of the remaining research and development work required. The plant utilizes a 550 Mw reactor with a circulating fuel solution of U233 dissolved in bismuth and a breeder fluid of thorium bismuthide dispersed in bismuth. Two-thousand (2000) psig, 975°F steam is delivered to a turbo-generator plant, producing 226,000 kw of net electrical power. Power costs, based on both single plants and multiple units utilizing common chemical processing facilities, range from 6.5 to 8.5 mils/kw-hr.