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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.
Rene Sanchez, John Bounds, David Hayes, Travis Grove, Fredrik Tovesson
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 162 | Number 3 | July 2009 | Pages 253-260
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE162-253
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The diffusion processes of neutrons in Lucite have been investigated. The mechanisms for these processes have been described as having two steps. In the first step, the fast neutrons collide with the nuclei of Lucite, losing energy until they reach thermal energies. In the second step of the diffusion process, the thermal neutrons continue to diffuse through the Lucite without any significant loss of energy until they are finally absorbed or leak out of the system. Experiments were performed to study these two processes and to estimate the absorption cross section in Lucite. The experiments yielded an average range of 6.3 ± 0.1 cm for fast neutrons slowing down to thermal energies and a thermal absorption cross section in Lucite of 0.52 ± 0.02 b.