Shield Design for a Space Based Vapor Core Reactor

Conference · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2002

OSTI ID:21167918

Knight, Travis; Anghaie, Samim ^[1]

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1. Innovative Nuclear Space Power and Propulsion Institute (INSPI), PO Box 116502, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611-6502 (United States)

Innovative shielding strategies were sought to reduce the mass of the required shielding for a space based vapor core reactor system with magnetohydrodynamic energy conversion. Gamma-rays directly resultant from fission were found to play no role in the dose rate, while secondary gamma-rays from fission neutron interactions were the dominant contributor to the dose rate. Hydrogen containing materials such as polyethylene were utilized to provide shielding of both radiation from the reactor complex and also solar and galactic cosmic radiation. This shield design was found to contribute 0.125 kg/kWe to the baseline vapor core reactor system specific mass. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 21167918
• Resource Relation: Conference: ICAPP'02: 2002 International congress on advances in nuclear power plants, Hollywood, FL (United States), 9-13 Jun 2002; Other Information: Country of input: France; 6 refs
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
42 ENGINEERING
COSMIC RADIATION
DESIGN
DOSE RATES
ENERGY CONVERSION
FISSION
FISSION NEUTRONS
GAMMA RADIATION
HYDROGEN
MASS
POLYETHYLENES
REACTOR CORES
SHIELDING
SHIELDS
SPACE
VAPORS
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems