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Launching into tomorrow: NRIC guides new era of research and deployment
In June 2025, the Department of Energy announced the Reactor Pilot Program, an authorization pathway that allowed reactor developers to partner with the DOE to get first-of-a-kind (FOAK) reactors built and tested. Soon after, the DOE rolled out a complementary Fuel Line Pilot Program, which aimed to fast-track fuel projects. In all, 20 projects were accepted into the new programs.
Grégory Perret, Ivor David Clifford, Diego Mora Mendez
Nuclear Technology | Volume 211 | Number 12 | December 2025 | Pages 2929-2946
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2025.2521590
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Pressurized thermal shock following a loss-of-coolant accidental scenario has been recognized as a safety concern for the integrity of the reactor pressure vessel since the 1980s. In the context of the recent APAL (Advanced PTS Analysis for LTO) European project, the safety analysis, including coupled thermal hydraulics (TH) and fracture mechanics analyses, has been upgraded to include uncertainty quantification. This paper presents the results obtained by the Paul Scherrer Institute in which the TRACE and FAVOR codes were used. TH uncertainties were estimated and propagated in one-dimensional fracture mechanics models to yield a 95%/95% lower tolerance bound for the maximum allowable adjusted reference temperature. The results are compared for several scenarios (fracture type, fracture criteria, with and without residual stresses) with a conservative base case and a best-estimate case. A sensitivity analysis finally helped determine the most relevant TH uncertain parameters.