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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.
J. I. Katz
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 180 | Number 1 | May 2015 | Pages 117-122
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-81
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Deuterium-deuterium and deuterium-tritium reaction rates may be compared to determine plasma temperatures in the 10- to 200-eV range. Distinguishing neutrons from these two reactions is difficult when yields are low or unpredictable. Time-of-flight (TOF) methods fail if the source is extended in time. These neutrons may be distinguished because inelastic scattering of more energetic neutrons by carbon produces a 4.44-MeV gamma ray and because hydrogenous material preferentially attenuates lower-energy neutrons. We describe a detector system that can discriminate between lower- and higher-energy neutrons for fluences as low as O(102) neutrons per sterad even when TOF methods fail, define a figure of merit, and calculate its performance over a broad range of parameters.