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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, D. P. Wood, W. U. Geer
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 8 | Number 6 | December 1960 | Pages 588-594
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE60-A25845
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Critical masses have been measured for enriched-uranium-metal cylinders reflected on both ends and on one end only by multiple layers of two and three of the metals Cu, Fe, Zn, Ni, and stainless steel. For other measurements the core was partially moderated with graphite and with polyethylene so as to give the influence of decreased neutron energy upon reflector savings of the multiple reflectors. Critical mass values with composite reflectors are less than the simple averages of values for the elements alone. This reduction of critical mass, most pronounced for the Ni-Fe reflectors, is primarily due to the fact that the self-shielding of the scattering resonances in medium-Z elements is appreciable when one-element reflectors are used, and is reduced when two or more of these elements are mixed in the reflectors.