General-Purpose Heat Source Development: Safety Verification Test Program. Flyer plate test series

Technical Report · Mon Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1986

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6908353· OSTI ID:6908353

Cull, T A; Pavone, D

The General-Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) is a modular component of a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) that will provide electric power for space missions. The initial RTG applications will be for the NASA Galileo and the ESA Ulysses missions. Each of the 18 GPHS modules in an RTG contains four /sup 238/PuO/sub 2/-fueled clads and generates 250 W/sub (t)/. A series of Safety Verification Tests (SVTs) has been conducted to assess the ability of the GPHS fueled clads to contain the plutonia in accident environments. Because a launch pad or postlaunch explosion of the Space Transportation System Vehicle (space shuttle) is one conceivable accident, the SVT plan included a series of tests to simulate the fragment environment that the RTG and GPHS modules would experience in such an event. These tests deal specifically with the flat-on collision of flyer-plate-type fragments with bare, simulant-fueled (depleted UO/sub 2/) clads. Results of these tests suggest that the fueled clad is only minimally breached by collision with 3.53-mm-thick flyer-plate-type fragments of space shuttle alloy at velocities up to 1170 m/s. However, collision of a 38.1-mm-thick plate with a bare GPHS clad, at a velocity of 270 m/s, results in a total release of fuel.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 6908353
• Report Number(s): LA-10742-MS; ON: DE87002234
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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