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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.
R. K. Osborn
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 3 | Number 1 | January 1958 | Pages 29-37
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE58-A25443
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An explicit form for the function representing the probability that a neutron with velocity v′ shall be scattered into an element of volume in velocity space d3υ about v, by elastic collisions with atoms of arbitrary mass number A in a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution characterized by a temperature T, is derived. Analytical representations of this probability are presented for scattering cross sections which are either independent of relative speed or exhibit a Gaussian dependence. The scattering probability resulting from the former assumption is examined in some detail, and then employed in a calculation of the mean energy change per collision.