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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.
J. W. ANDERSON, W. D. MCNEESE, C. C. BURWELL, J. A. LEARY
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 11 | Number 4 | December 1961 | Pages 434-440
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE61-A26045
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tantalum-sheathed plutonium fuel pins have been prepared for the first core loading of the Los Alamos Molten Plutonium Reactor Experiment-I. Twenty-five kilograms of plutonium–10 atomic per cent iron alloy were prepared by co-reduction and by co-melting methods. After casting the alloy into rods, each rod was machined and finished to a 0.357 in. diam piece weighing 175 gm. The finished alloy rod was finally placed in a tantalum sheath which was then sealed by fusion welding to a tantalum cap. Procedures and equipment used for alloying, casting, machining, welding, and inspection are described and illustrated by photograph. Methods used to prepare rods of other low melting plutonium alloys are also discussed.