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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.
A. Jerry Scott, Daniel E. Wessol, Jerry L. Judd
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 3 | Number 1 | January 1983 | Pages 129-136
Technical Paper | Blanket Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A20823
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The neutronic feasibility of testing fusing firstwall/blanket systems in a fission reactor is investigated. Heating rates resulting from a 14-MeV fusion source are calculated with one-dimensional transport theory for two tokamak blanket designs and compared with heating rates computed for the same blankets in the Engineering Test Reactor (ETR). The designs studied are a gas-cooled, liquid-lithium blanket with no neutron multiplier and a water-cooled, solid lithium-aluminate blanket with a beryllium multiplier. Based on these preliminary results, it is concluded that bulk heating rate profiles expected in tokamak reactor blankets can be simulated quite well in large (65- × 76- × 91-cm) blanket experiment modules placed on one side of the ETR core. Heating rates corresponding to tokamak wall loadings of 1 MW/m2 can be achieved, and the level varied to simulate the cyclic operation typical of tokamaks.