PERFORMANCE OF CESIUM THERMIONIC DIODES OPERATED IN SERIES-PARALLEL CIRCUITS

Technical Report · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1962

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4761367· OSTI ID:4761367

Holland, J W

Electrical power degradation from the operation of many series-parallel circuited cesium diodes in a thermionic reactor must be considered when a nonflattened nuclear power distribution exists over the volume of the reactor core. An experiment was carried out to measure the loss of power and efficiency due to unequal heat inputs to series- or parallel-connected diodes, and to study the operating characteristics of a multiple-diode system. The results were applied to a specific thermionic reactor configuration with a ratio of maximum to minimum diode heat input of 1.85. The minimum degradation of power and efficiency was found to be 41 and 19%, respectively, at optimized operating conditions. (auth)

• Research Organization: Atomics International. Div. of North American Aviation, Inc., Canoga Park, Calif.
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AT(11-1)-GEN-8
• NSA Number: NSA-17-003268
• OSTI ID: 4761367
• Report Number(s): TID-17254
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CESIUM
CIRCUITS
DIODES
DISTRIBUTION
EFFICIENCY
ELECTRON TUBES
GAS FLOW
HEAT EXCHANGERS
INSTRUMENTS AND INSTRUMENTATION
LEAK DETECTORS
MASS SPECTROMETERS
MEASURED VALUES
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
PERFORMANCE
POWER
REACTOR CORE
REACTORS
THERMIONICS
VACUUM
VALVES