ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jul 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2026
Nuclear Technology
July 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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. R. Hofmann
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 68 | Number 1 | October 1978 | Pages 73-90
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE78-A27272
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A model has been developed to describe the transient pressure field within the interconnected porosity of solid mixed-oxide fast reactor fuel during a reactor transient. The pore gas may be composed of up to two distinct chemical species, so that gas released from fuel grains may differ chemically from the fill gas originally present within the porosity of the fuel. The volume expansion of fuel upon melting is accounted for, but mechanical deformation of the solid fuel is not modeled. Results are presented for a hypothetical unprotected transient over-power accident in a gas-cooled fast reactor with ramp rates of 0.10, 1.0, and 10.0 dollar/s. In these calculations, fuel cladding failure is computed from a linear accumulative damage law and a Larson-Miller parameter correlation.