High-silicon {sup 238}PuO{sub 2} fuel characterization study: Half module impact tests

Journal Article · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1997 · AIP Conference Proceedings

OSTI ID:627659

Reimus, M A ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory Nuclear Material Technology Division P.O. Box 1663, MS-E502 Los Alamos, New Mexico87545 (United States)

The General-Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) provides power for space missions by transmitting the heat of {sup 238}Pu decay to an array of thermoelectric elements. The modular GPHS design was developed to address both survivability during launch abort and return from orbit. Previous testing conducted in support of the Galileo and Ulysses missions documented the response of GPHSs to a variety of fragment-impact, aging, atmospheric reentry, and Earth-impact conditions. The evaluations documented in this report are part of an ongoing program to determine the effect of fuel impurities on the response of the heat source to conditions baselined during the Galileo/Ulysses test program. In the first two tests in this series, encapsulated GPHS fuel pellets containing high levels of silicon were aged, loaded into GPHS module halves, and impacted against steel plates. The results show no significant differences between the response of these capsules and the behavior of relatively low-silicon fuel pellets tested previously. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}

• OSTI ID: 627659
• Report Number(s): CONF-970115--
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 387; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
42 ENGINEERING
DAMAGE
DESIGN
IMPACT TESTS
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
PERFORMANCE
POWER RANGE 100-1000 W
RADIOISOTOPE HEAT SOURCES
SPACE VEHICLES
STRESS ANALYSIS
THERMOELECTRIC GENERATORS