Advanced thermionic energy conversion. Joint highlights and status report, April-June 1979

Technical Report · Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1979

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5776853· OSTI ID:5776853

The DOE portion of the effort at Rasor Associates is directed primarily toward terrestrial applications of thermionic energy conversion. It focuses on the development of converters suitable for use with fossil fueled heat sources in power plants. The NASA program is directed at establishing the technical feasibility of an advanced light-weight long-life thermionic conversion system compatible with a remote nuclear or solar heat source. The principal application forseen at this time is in nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) missions in the mid-1990's. Significant accomplishments for the three month period include: (1) devised a blade-type distributed lead design with many advantages compared to the stud-type distributed lead; (2) completed design of Marchuk tube test apparatus; (3) concluded, based on current understanding, that residual hydrogen should not contribute to a negative space charge barrier at the collector; (4) modified THX design program to include series-coupled designs as well as inductively-coupled designs; (5) initiated work on the heat transfer technology, THX test module, output power transfer system, heat transfer system, and conceptual plant design tasks; and (6) reached 2200 hours of operation in JPL-5 cylindrical converter envelope test. (WHK)

• Research Organization: Rasor Associates, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-02-2263
• OSTI ID: 5776853
• Report Number(s): COO-2263-15; NSR-2-15
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
THERMIONIC CONVERTERS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
CONNECTORS
DATA
DESIGN
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
FABRICATION
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
HYDROGEN
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PERFORMANCE
PROPULSION REACTORS
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
TESTING
THERMIONIC COLLECTORS
THERMIONIC EMITTERS
THERMIONIC REACTORS
TOPPING CYCLES
CONDUCTOR DEVICES
CRYOGENIC FLUIDS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
FLUIDS
INFORMATION
NONMETALS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
POWER PLANTS
POWER REACTORS
REACTORS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
300401* - Thermionic Converters- Design & Development