KiloPower Space Reactor Concept: Reactor Materials Study

Technical Report · Wed May 14 00:00:00 EDT 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1131780· OSTI ID:1131780

McClure, Patrick R. ^[1]; Poston, David I. ^[1]; Gibson, Marc ^[2]; Bowman, Cheryl ^[2]; Creasy, John ^[3]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH (United States)
3. Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

This paper presents the logic and analysis used to produce an initial choice of fuel, reflector material and heat pipe placement for the Kilopower reactor concept. Kilopower is a small 4 kWt (1 kWe) space reactor system that uses a highly enriched uranium core with heat pipes to deliver thermal energy to Stirling engines to produce electricity. First, the paper presents the logic behind the initial selection of uranium metal as the base starting point for the fuel over a myriad of other fuel choices. Next, a material study was performed that examined the choices of potential alloy materials for uranium, choices for reflector material and choices for the location of the heat pipes. The results of the material study was a fuel choice of highly enriched uranium alloy with 7% molybdenum, a reflector choice of beryllium oxide, and a choice for the heat pipe placement at the edge of the fuel. This report is a companion document to heat pipe mechanical design performed by NASA Glenn Research and materials research/manufacturing design work performed by NASA Glenn and Y-12.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1131780
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--14-23402
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
Space reactor
Uranium fuel