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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.
S. Cierjacks, Y. Hino, M. Drosg
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 106 | Number 2 | October 1990 | Pages 183-191
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE90-07
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A high-intensity, high-energy neutron source for fusion materials testing is proposed. Utilizing the 1H(t,n)3He neutron source reaction and bombarding a thick (totally absorbing) hydrogen-rich target with an intense beam of 21-MeV tritons provides a powerful continuous-energy-spectrum neutron source. The global spectrum of such a source is almost flat over the energy range from ∼1 to 14 MeV and exhibits a sharp energy cutoff level at 14.6 MeV. To meet near-term needs for fusion materials testing, a source concept is considered that involves multiple linear accelerator modules providing two 250-mA triton beams to bombard two water jet targets that face each other and irradiate the same test volume. Calculations of the source properties from well-established neutron production cross-section data for the 1H(t,n)3He reaction predict a test volume of 4.2 dm3 in which an average flux of ≥1 × 1014 n·cm-2·s-1 is achieved. The relevant properties of this source and the possibility of its realization, well within the limits of present technology, are discussed.