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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.
Peter G. Laky, Nicholas Tsoulfanidis
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 118 | Number 2 | October 1994 | Pages 103-107
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE94-A28539
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The MCNP code modeling of reactor cavity dosimetry reactions to validate the computed neutron flux hitting the pressure vessel of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) requires the choice of an appropriate cadmium cutoff energy. Since the neutron spectrum is harder in the cavity than in the core, the same cadmium cutoff energy may not be universally applied. The correct cutoff energy for the cavity of a PWR was computed by using MCNP4a and a representative cavity spectrum. Four cadmium-covered foil reactions were analyzed, and the appropriate energy cutoff was determined to be ∼0.6 eV for ∼0.5-mm-thick cadmium covers.