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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. Ando, A. Imasaki, H. Tobari, T. Yagai, K. Hattori, M. Inutake
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 43 | Number 1 | January 2003 | Pages 130-132
Propulsion | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A11963579
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Macroscopic behavior of a high-beta and supersonic plasma flow produced by a magneto-plasma-dynamic arcjet (MPDA) was investigated in the HITOP device. A macroscopic instability was observed as a bulk rotation of the plasma plume eccentrically around the center axis of the vacuum vessel. We investigated whether it was caused by current-driven or pressure-driven instability. A plasma current circulating in the plasma plume was controlled by changing discharge current, magnetic field configuration and mass flow rate and by inserting a copper-mesh grid. It was found that the plasma plume was macroscopically stable when the current extending into the plasma plume was low and the safety factor was more than unity. This indicates that the observed macroscopic instability was mainly caused by a current-driven one.