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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.
L. Leibowitz, L. Baker, Jr., J. G. Schnizlein, L. W. Mishler, J. D. Bingle
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 15 | Number 4 | April 1963 | Pages 395-403
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A26456
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Measurements have been made of the maximum burning temperatures and the propagation velocities along strips of uranium and zirconium foils and wires burning in air. Measurements were made using either a high-speed motion picture camera or a specially constructed two-slit electronic pyrometer. Burning temperatures and propagation velocities were measured as a funcion of both sample width and sample thickness. It was found that burning propagation velocities could be reasonably well described by a thermal propagation theory similar to one applied to flame propagation in gases. Variation of propagation rates with thickness and width of foil were correctly described by the theory. The results of the study are applicable to the combustion of isolated pieces of uranium and zirconium scrap but not directly to the more complicated case of the combustion of large aggregates. Some of the additional factors involved in large aggregate fires are discussed.