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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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The progress so far: An update on the Reactor Pilot Program
It has been about three months since the Department of Energy named 10 companies for its new Reactor Pilot Program, which maps out how the DOE would meet the goal announced by executive order in May of having three reactors achieve criticality by July 4, 2026.
Afiqa Mohamad, Yutaka Udagawa
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 2 | February 2024 | Pages 245-260
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2185061
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the Power to Melt and Maneuverability (P2M) project, a simulation exercise on two past power ramp experiments, xM3 on a medium-burnup rod and HBC4 on a high-burnup rod, was performed with the fuel performance code FEMAXI-8 to investigate fuel behavior under high-power and high-temperature conditions toward centerline fuel melting. In order to treat fuel melting, empirical melting temperature models have been incorporated into the FEMAXI-8 code. The present analysis gives reasonable predictions not only on cladding deformation but also on the fuel melting behavior of the HBC4 rod in which the UO2 liquidus temperature was reached during the transient. On the other hand, model improvement appears to be needed for a more accurate treatment of the fuel melting behavior of the xM3 rod in which the fuel center temperature reached the solidus line, whereas it may have not reached the liquidus line. A reasonable agreement of estimated fission gas release (FGR) with the measurement suggested that the high-temperature FGR at the given conditions is essentially a temperature-dependent phenomenon rate limited primarily by thermally activated elementary processes, such as fission gas diffusion.