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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.
R. Bovalini, F. D’Auria, G. M. Galassi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 115 | Number 2 | October 1993 | Pages 89-111
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE93-A28521
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A methodology is described that can be used for the extrapolation of thermal-hydraulic phenomena measured in differently scaled integral test facilities to nuclear reactor plant conditions. The use of a system code in this context is confirmed to be of fundamental importance, provided that the code’s scaling capability has been demonstrated. The starting data base for the proposed study consists of the measured quantities and corresponding RELAP5/MOD2 code calculation results related to a boiling water reactor small-break loss-of-coolant accident (SBLOCA) counterpart test activity, a pressurized water reactor (PWR) natural-circulation type test activity, and a PWR SBLOCA counterpart test activity. The proof that this methodology can be used for evaluating uncertainties in predicting transient behavior in nuclear power plants is the main result of this study. Data have been obtained that give a value of the foreseeable error ranges in the provision of plant behavior in the three cases considered.