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The promise and challenges of cermet fueled nuclear thermal propulsion reactors

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5744599
; ;
The use of cermet fuels in nuclear thermal propulsion systems was examined and the characteristics of systems using these fuel forms is discussed in terms of current mission and safety requirements. For use at high temperatures cermet fueled reactors utilize ceramic fuels with refractory metals as the matrix material. Cermet fueled reactors tend to be heavy when compared to concepts that utilize graphite as the fuel matrix because of the high density of the refractory metal matrix which makes up 20-40 percent of the total volume. On the positive side the metal matrix is strong and more resistant to loads from either the launch or flow induced vibration. The compatibility of the tungsten cermet with hydrogen is excellent and lifetimes of several hours is certainly achievable. Probably the biggest drawback to cermet nuclear thermal propulsion concepts is that the amount of actual data to support the theoretical conclusions is small. In fact there is no data under representative conditions of temperature, propellant and flux for the required fuel burnup. Although cermet systems appear to be attractive, the lack of fuel data at representative conditions does not allow reliable comparisons of cermet systems to systems where fuel data is available. 10 refs.
OSTI ID:
5744599
Report Number(s):
AIAA-Paper--93-2111; CONF-930633--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210600* -- Power Reactors
Auxiliary
Mobile Package
& Transportable
ALLOYS
CERMETS
COMPOSITE MATERIALS
COST ESTIMATION
DESIGN
ELEMENTS
HYDROGEN
ION PROPULSION
LUNA SPACE PROBES
MARS SPACE PROBES
MATERIALS
METALS
NONMETALS
PERFORMANCE
PROPULSION
PROPULSION REACTORS
PROPULSION SYSTEMS
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTORS
REFRACTORY METALS
RELIABILITY
SAFETY
SPACE VEHICLES
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
TUNGSTEN
VEHICLES