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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.
T. A. Eastwood, R. D. Werner
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 13 | Number 4 | August 1962 | Pages 385-390
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE62-A26181
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An experimental study of neutron self-shielding in cobalt foils and wires has been made by an activation technique. Cobalt foils ranging in thickness from 0.0004 to 0.004 in. and 0.005 in. thick Co-Al alloy reference foils containing 1% Co were irradiated under cadmium in the NRX reactor. The Co60 specific activity in the pure foils was compared with that in the reference foils to give the gross self-shielding factors. Experimental resonance self-shielding factors were obtained by separating the 1/v part from the gross self-shielding factors, and agreement with calculated resonance self-shielding factors for foils was observed. Self-shielding factors for wire ranging in diameter from 0.001 to 0.025 in. and for 0.050 in. diam 1 % Co-Al alloy wire were also measured since they are of practical importance and have not been calculated. Measurements of self-shielding factors for thermal neutrons were made for cobalt wires and these agree with theory.