Integrated analysis of nuclear thermal rocket system performance
Conference
·
· Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)
OSTI ID:6683614
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
As part of the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI), nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) engines will play a key transportation role. Although a number of tests of prismatic, solid-core nuclear engines were completed during the ROVER/NERVA program, the estimated cost of completing full-engine tests will severely limit the scope, duration, and number of any such tests in the future. Design optimization by test iteration is unlikely, and an emphasis on computational modeling is a cost-effective alternative. As a consequence of our responsibilities within the US Dept. of Energy's SEI efforts to develop key NTR technologies, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is developing the capability to design and verify the safety and performance of NTR systems. Because of the important role that computational modeling will play in the faster, better, and cheaper development of an NTR system, we are pursuing two paths of analysis. The first undertaking is the development of accurate separate-effects codes for design and analysis. Included in this category are thermal-hydraulic and radiation-transport codes. Our other endeavor, which is the focus of this paper, is to develop an advanced computational architecture that can be used to model the entire NTR system.
- OSTI ID:
- 6683614
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-921102--
- Conference Information:
- Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States) Journal Volume: 66
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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