Light weight space power reactors for nuclear electric propulsion
A Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) unit capable of propelling a manned vehicle to MARS will be required to have a value of {alpha} (kg/kWe) which is less than five. In order to meet this goal the reactor mass, and thus its contribution to the value of {alpha} will have to be minimized. In this paper a candidate for such a reactor is described. It consists of a gas cooled Particle Bed Reactor (PBR), with specially chosen materials which allow it to operate at an exit temperature of approximately 2000 K. One of the unique features of a PBR is the direct cooling of particulate fuel by the working fluid. This feature allows for high power densities, highest possible gas exit temperatures, for a given fuel temperature and because of the thin particle bed a low pressure drop. The PBR's described in this paper will have a ceramic moderator (Be{sub 2}C), ZrC coated fuel particles and a carbon/carbon hot frit. All the reactors will be designed with sufficient fissile loading to operate at full power for seven years. The burn up possible with particulate fuel is approximately 30%--50%. These rector designs achieve a value of {alpha} less than unity in the power range of interest (5 MWe). 5 refs., 3 figs.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH00016
- OSTI ID:
- 5577486
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-46235; CONF-910626-2; ON: DE91014803
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 6. international conference on emerging nuclear energy systems, Monterey, CA (United States), 16-21 Jun 1991
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
SPACE PROPULSION REACTORS
DESIGN
BERYLLIUM CARBIDES
FUEL PARTICLES
HEAT TRANSFER
HYDRAULICS
POWER GENERATION
REACTOR COOLING SYSTEMS
REACTOR PHYSICS
ZIRCONIUM CARBIDES
ALKALINE EARTH METAL COMPOUNDS
BERYLLIUM COMPOUNDS
CARBIDES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
COOLING SYSTEMS
ENERGY SYSTEMS
ENERGY TRANSFER
FLUID MECHANICS
MECHANICS
MOBILE REACTORS
PHYSICS
POWER REACTORS
PROPULSION REACTORS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTORS
SPACE POWER REACTORS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
ZIRCONIUM COMPOUNDS
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
220800* - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Propulsion Reactors