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.
Chen-Kuo Weng, Robert M. Edwards, Asok Ray
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 117 | Number 3 | July 1994 | Pages 177-185
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE94-A28532
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A robust feedforward-feedback controller is proposed for wide-range operations of nuclear reactors. This control structure provides (a) optimized performance over a wide operating range resulting from the feedforward element and (b) guaranteed robust stability and performance resulting from the feedback element. The feedforward control law is synthesized via nonlinear programming, which generates an optimal control sequence over a finite-time horizon under specified constraints. The feedback control is synthesized via the structured singular value µ approach to guarantee robustness in the presence of disturbances and modeling uncertainties. The results of simulation experiments are presented to demonstrate efficacy of the proposed control structure for a large rapid power reduction to avoid unnecessary plant trips.