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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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DOE fast tracks test reactor projects: What to know
The Department of Energy today unveiled 10 companies racing to bring test reactors online by next year to meet Trump's deadline of next Independance Day, leveraging a new DOE pathway that allows reactor authorization outside national labs. As first outlined in one of the four executive orders on nuclear energy released by President Trump on May 23 and in the request for applications for the Reactor Pilot Program released June 18, the companies must use their own money and sites—and DOE authorization—to get reactors operating. What they won’t need is a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license.
Donald E. Burton, Charles M. Snell, Jon B. Bryan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 26 | Number 1 | May 1975 | Pages 65-87
Technical Paper | Nuclear Explosive | doi.org/10.13182/NT75-A24405
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Two-dimensional computer calculations were performed to model nuclear and high-explosive cratering detonations in saturated Bearpaw clay shale. Three calculations simulated 20-ton energy-yield nitromethane cratering experiments at burial depths of 6, 12.5, and 17 m. Results agreed with experimentally measured peak stresses, peak particle velocities, and crater dimensions. Calculations for a hypothetical nuclear source of the same energy at 12.5 m showed that only half as much kinetic energy was coupled into the mound; a correspondingly smaller crater was predicted. A 10-ton nitromethane source at 12.5 m was also calculated and was found to closely match the nuclear calculation. For these calculations, mound kinetic energy provided a valid criterion for achieving cratering similitude between high-explosive and nuclear events. In this case, similitude was obtained with a nitromethane source having about half the energy of the nuclear source.