Thermionic fuel element verification program---overview

Conference · Sat Jan 05 00:00:00 EST 1991 · AIP Conference Proceedings (American Institute of Physics); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.40117· OSTI ID:5415731

Bohl, R.J. ^[1]

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1. (Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM (USA)) Dutt, D.S. (Westinghouse Hanford Company, P.O. Box 1970, Richland, WA (USA)) Dahlberg, R.C. (General Atomics, P.O. Box 85608, San Diego, CA (USA)) Wood, J.T. (US Department of Energy, San Francisco Operations Office, 1333 Broadway, Oakland, CA (USA))

TFE Verification Program is in the sixth year of a program to demonstrate the performance and lifetime of thermionic fuel elements for high power space applications. It is jointly funded by SIDO and DOE. Data from accelerated tests in FFTF and EBR-II show component lifetimes longer than 7 years. Alumina insulators have shown good performance at high fast fluence. Graphite-cesium reservoirs based on isotropic graphite also meet requirements. Three TFEs are current operating in the TRIGA reactor, the oldest having accumulated 15,000 hours of irradiation as of 1 October 1990.

• OSTI ID: 5415731
• Report Number(s): CONF-910116-; CODEN: APCPC
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings (American Institute of Physics); (United States), Vol. 217:2; Conference: 8. symposium on space nuclear power systems, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 6-10 Jan 1991; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
THERMIONIC FUEL ELEMENTS
PERFORMANCE
SERVICE LIFE
SPACE POWER REACTORS
SPACE VEHICLES
TRIGA TYPE REACTORS
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
FUEL ELEMENTS
HOMOGENEOUS REACTORS
HYDRIDE MODERATED REACTORS
MOBILE REACTORS
POWER REACTORS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTORS
RESEARCH AND TEST REACTORS
SOLID HOMOGENEOUS REACTORS
VEHICLES
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
300401* - Thermionic Converters- Design & Development