White Paper - Comparison of LEU and HEU Fuel for the Kilopower Reactor
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C. (United States)
This white paper presents a comparison of Low Enriched Uranium (LEU) versus Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) as fuel for the Kilopower space reactor. It draws upon a previously published white paper 1 by the LANL authors, which was written in order to explore synergistic programmatic objectives with the current NASA Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) program. In that white paper no recommendations or conclusions were drawn on the appropriate choice of fuel for Kilopower. However, recent news articles, congressional remarks and conference papers have suggested the use of HEU for Kilopower may need to be reconsidered. This white paper explores in more detail the pros and cons of both fuel choices and presents a conclusion on why the use of HEU is the preferred choice as fuel for Kilopower.
- 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:
- 1477618
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR--18-29623
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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