Assessment of Zero Power Critical Experiments and Needs for a Fission Surface Power System

Conference · Sun Jun 14 04:00:00 EDT 2009

OSTI ID:961920

Parry, James R. ^[1]; Bess, John D. ^[1]; Rearden, Bradley T. ^[2]; Harms, Gary A. ^[3]

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1. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
2. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
3. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is providing funding to the Department of Energy to assess, develop, and test nuclear technologies that could provide surface power to a lunar outpost. Sufficient testing of this fission surface power (FSP) system will need to be completed to enable a decision by NASA for flight development. The near-term goal for the FSP work is to conduct the minimum amount of testing needed to validate the system performance within an acceptable risk. This paper provides an assessment of the current modeling capabilities and quantifies a preliminary bias associated with the modeling methods for designing the nuclear reactor. Advanced analysis techniques using Zero Power Plutonium Reactor (ZPPR)-20C data should provide sufficient information to preclude the necessity of a cold critical test of the FSP. Further testing to reduce uncertainties in the beryllium and uranium cross-section data should reduce the overall uncertainty in the computational models.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-99ID13727
• OSTI ID: 961920
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-08-15138
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
BENCHMARKS
BERYLLIUM
CRITICALITY
CROSS SECTIONS
Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF)
FISSION
Fission Surface Power (FSP)
Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU)
Intermediate Enriched Uranium (IEU)
LIFETIME
Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP)
NASA
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
POTASSIUM ALLOYS
POWER SYSTEMS
REACTION KINETICS
REACTORS
SAFETY
SODIUM ALLOYS
Space Nuclear Power
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TESTING
URANIUM
Zero Power Critical Assessment
Zero Power Plutonium Reactor (ZPPR)