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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.
Carl E. Walter
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 6 | Number 4 | October 1959 | Pages 279-283
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE59-A28844
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In its elevated-temperature critical-assembly experiments, the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore, will utilize stainless-steel-clad fuel elements. The fuel element consists of 0.001- or 0.002-in. thick enriched-uranium foil packaged in a welded 0.002-in. thick type-347 stainless-steel envelope. The design requirements for the fuel elements are stated, as are the considerations which led to the design selected. Beta heat treatment of the uranium was found necessary to provide compatible thermal-expansion characteristics for the two materials in the fuel element.