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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.
G. E. Hansen, H. C. Paxton, D. P. Wood
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 8 | Number 6 | December 1960 | Pages 570-577
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE60-A25843
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Critical configurations have been established with enriched uranium in the form of squat 15.0-in. diameter cylinders and elongated 3.24-in. diameter cylinders. These cores were reflected by depleted uranium, polyethylene, graphite, and water; also, the squat cylinder was unreflected and reflected by beryllium of various thicknesses. Critical systems of plutonium were squat 6.0-in. diameter cylinders and elongated 2.25-in. diameter cylinders reflected by normal uranium, graphite, water, and in one case, polyethylene. Observed critical heights and diameters were corrected to correspond to standard enriched-uranium and plutonium densities and concentrations. These are tabulated along with effective extrapolation distances.