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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.
P. Mohanakrishnan, H. C. Huria
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 68 | Number 2 | November 1978 | Pages 220-226
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE78-A27294
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A theoretical analysis of the reactivities of experimentally measured uniform light-water-moderated and -reflected PuO2 in UO2 lattices and Pu(NO3)4 solutions is presented here. The mixed-oxide single-rod lattices are homogenized by the use of multigroup integral transport theory, and diffusion theory is used for the cylindrical core calculations. The cross sections are derived from the WIMS library. The homogeneous spherical Pu(NO3)4 solutions are analyzed by discrete-ordinates transport theory. Due to the small size of these assemblies, it is necessary that one-dimensional core calculations also be performed with a cross-section energy-group structure that can accurately represent neutron slowing down and thermalization at the core-reflector interface. Due to the uncertainty present in the Battelle Northwest Laboratories analyses of the mixed-oxide lattices, the agreement of our predictions for these lattices with measurement is considered to be more satisfactory. Our reactivity predictions agree generally within +0.6% of measurements for the mixed-oxide lattices and within 1% for the solution systems.