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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.
Y. Ronen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 156 | Number 3 | July 2007 | Pages 408-409
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE07-A2708
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A "fertile" isotope is defined as a long-lived isotope from which, as a result of a (n,) reaction, we obtain a fissile isotope of a different element. It was found that most of the fertile isotopes have a 2Z - N = 38 value and that these isotopes are the most stable isotopes in their corresponding elements. It was also found that the largest number of "stable" nuclei have a 2Z - N = 38 "magic" value.