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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.
Karl O. Ott
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 64 | Number 2 | October 1977 | Pages 452-464
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE77-A27382
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An approach for the description and evaluation of the uncertainties in the predicted consequences of fast breeder reactor accidents is outlined. All uncertainties are viewed as uncertainties of parameters, either of physical parameters or of quantities that appear in the parameterization of phenomenological models. By the incorporation of parameter uncertainties in the simulation of the accident progression, single accident-path scenarios assume the character of “accident spectra.” The progression of accident spectra is found by combining deterministically calculated accident-path results with the probability of the respective set of input parameters. The substantial method development needed for the implementation of the approach is discussed, and the status of the development is briefly reviewed. Typical results are presented for illustration purposes. The possible eventual significance of the approach is indicated.