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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.
H. A. Kurstedt, Jr., G. H. Miley
Nuclear Technology | Volume 10 | Number 2 | February 1971 | Pages 168-178
Technical Paper and Note | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT71-A30924
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The technique of short-interval series pulsing a thermal reactor has been studied experimentally using the University of Illinois TRIGA Reactor. Pulse repetition rates varying from 0.5 to 3.0 pulses/min were involved. These rates represent an order of magnitude decrease in time interval between pulses compared to previous TRIGA pulsing experience. It was found that the equilibrium pulse amplitudes are strongly affected by the pulse rod reactivity, the rod drop time, and the time interval between pulses; and in the experiments, each of these parameters was maintained at a fixed value during any given series. A unique method of analysis involving the reactor kinetics equations solved in temperature has been developed to study series pulsing. This analysis shows that a further improvement by a factor of 2 to 5 for present reactor and fuel designs can be expected with certain techniques that do not require major modifications to reactor geometry or fuel. These include changing the pulse rod reactivity values between pulses, changing the time interval between pulses, increasing the rod drop reactivity, and series pulsing from elevated powers.