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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.
Hiroshi Takahashi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 5 | Number 5 | May 1959 | Pages 338-346
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE59-A25607
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The thermal neutron energy spectrum in a homogeneous medium has been studied by many authors. In case of heterogeneous reactors, the absorption in fuels is so strong that the thermal neutron energy spectrum in the fuel will have a higher energy than in the moderator. The different temperatures of these media will also cause a difference of spectra. The thermal neutron energy spectra of each medium in a heterogeneous reactor are studied in this paper. The thermal neutron energy spectrum and the neutron temperature in light-water moderated and UO2 fueled reactors were calculated by a numerical method and the approximate Wigner-Wilkins method.