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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. T. Thomas
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 62 | Number 3 | March 1977 | Pages 424-437
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE77-A26982
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A surface density model based on experimental and calculated criticality data is developed for finite water-reflected arrays and results in semiempirical analytic expressions describing criticality. The relations provide information on the reactivity associated with such perturbations to arrays as changes in unit shapes, cell volumes, array shapes, and array reflectors. Equivalence between different fissile materials in a critical array is defined. The surface density and density analog models are shown to be in correspondence when applied to the same data. The density analog model is expressible as f(N) = g(m)p-2. The functions f(N) and g(m) are explicitly given, and the constant exponent has general applicability.