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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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House E&C members question the DOE
As work progresses on the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program, which will progress through DOE authorization rather than Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing, three members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce have sent a critical letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
The letter demands “information about the DOE and its employees’ dealings with the NRC and its staff” and expresses concern that DOE staff has “broken the firewall” between the departments.
Anil K. Prinja, Patrick F. O’Rourke
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 2 | February 2023 | Pages 189-211
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2087830
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The stochastic theory of neutron transport is extended to describe the cumulative distribution of fission numbers and deposited fission energy in a subvolume of a multiplying assembly. Solutions for the probability distributions are obtained using analytical approximations and Monte Carlo simulation in lumped geometry and in symmetric homogeneous and heterogeneous spheres. The results show the development of a power-law tail in the steady-state fission number and deposited energy distributions when the medium is critical, independent of the fission neutron multiplicity distribution and domain heterogeneity. In contrast, the asymptotic decay is faster than exponential in subcritical media due to rapid chain extinction and in supercritical media due to the increasing probability of chain divergence. A formal asymptotic analysis of the problem in lumped geometry with an arbitrary fission neutron multiplicity confirms the existence of power-law tails at critical.