From the discovery of the neutrino to the measurement of the last of the neutrino
mixing parameters, nuclear reactors have proved indispensable in the study of these
particles, of which much remains to be unveiled. Recent and past measurements
using reactor neutrinos rely on the prediction of their spectrum, a non-trivial exercise
involving ad-hoc methods and carefully-selected assumptions. A discrepancy
between predicted and measured fluxes at very short baselines, known as reactor
antineutrino anomaly, arose in 2011, prompting a considerable scientific production
as well as the birth of new experiments aiming to study neutrino oscillation at very
short baseline. Such anomaly can be in fact explained invoking the existence of a
new sterile neutrino at the eV mass scale participating in the neutrino mixing, an
enticing hypothesis that ties to other anomalies already observed in the neutrino
sector and opens a door for physics beyond the Standard Model. The speaker will
present an overview on the past and present studies of neutrino oscillation using
reactor neutrinos, with a focus on recent results on sterile neutrino searches at short
baseline, as well as a reference to the future flagship projects of this domain.
