A Two-Dimensional, Finite-Difference Model of the Oxidation of a Uranium Carbide Fuel Pellet

The oxidation of spent uranium carbide fuel, a candidate fuel for Generation IV nuclear reactors, is an important process in its potential reprocessing cycle. However, the oxidation of uranium carbide in air is highly exothermic. A model has therefore been developed to predict the temperature rise, as well as other useful information such as reaction completion times, under different reaction conditions in order to help in deriving safe oxidation conditions. Finite difference-methods are used to model the heat and mass transfer processes occurring during the reaction in two dimensions and are coupled to kinetics found in the literature

Ultra-safe nuclear thermal rockets using lunar-derived fuel

Rocket launch failure rate is slightly higher than five percent. Concerned citizens are likely to protest against private-sector launches involving fission reactors. Yet, fission reactors can power long-duration lunar operations for science, observation, and in situ resource utilization. Furthermore, fission reactors are needed for rapid transport around the solar system, especially considering natural radiation doses for crews visiting Mars or an asteroid. A novel approach is to create nuclear fuel on the Moon. In this way, a rocket launched from the earth with no radioactive material can be fueled in outer space, avoiding the risks of spreading uranium across Earth's biosphere. A solution is to harvest fertile thorium on the lunar surface, then transmute it into fissile uranium using the gamma ray fog which pervades the deep sky. It is only at lunar orbit, at the very edge of cislunar space, that the Earth-launched machine becomes a nuclear thermal rocket (NTR). Thorium is not abundant, but can be concentrated by mechanical methods because of its very high specific density relative to the bulk of lunar regolith. Thorium dioxide (ThO2) has an extremely high melting point, such that skull crucible heating can be used to separate it from supernatant magma. When filled into a graphite-lined beryllium container (brought from Earth) and set out on the lunar surface, high-energy gamma rays will liberate neutrons from the Be. After moderation by the graphite, these thermal neutrons are captured by the thorium nucleus, which is transmuted into protactinium (Pa91). This element can be extracted using the THOREX process, and will then decay naturally into U-233 within two or three lunar days. The uranium is oxidized and packed into fuel pellets, ready to be inserted into a non-radioactive machine, which now becomes an NTR. Additionally, hydrogen can be extracted from deposits in permanently-shadowed regions on the Moon, providing reaction mass for the NTR. A novel method of solid-state hydrogen storage, which can be entirely fabricated using in situ resources, can deliver said hydrogen to the fission reactor to provide high and efficient propulsive thrust. These combined operations lead to an ultra-safe (for the Earth) means for private sector, commercial transport and power generation throughout the Solar System. With the hydrogen storage material used as radiation shielding for crewed spacecraft, and greatly-reduced transit times relative to chemical rocketry, this innovative approach could fundamentally transform how humans work, play, and explore in outer space

Overview of space propulsion systems for identifying nondestructive evaluation and health monitoring opportunities

The next generation of space propulsion systems will be designed to incorporate advanced health monitoring and nondestructive inspection capabilities. As a guide to help the nondestructive evaluation (NDE) community impact the development of these space propulsion systems, several questions should be addressed. An overview of background and current information on space propulsion systems at both the programmatic and technical levels is provided. A framework is given that will assist the NDE community in addressing key questions raised during the 2 to 5 April 1990 meeting of the Joint Army-Navy-NASA-Air Force (JANNAF) Nondestructive Evaluation Subcommittee (NDES)

Study and development of high release refractory materials for the SPES project

Throughout the last century, theoretical and experimental research made by the international nuclear physicists community has led to important advancement in the knowledge of the mechanisms that govern the behavior and stability of the nuclei. The technological improvements necessary to support this research has often opened the way to new applications in other field of science and industry which directly reflects in our common life experience. Nowadays, Europe is becoming more and more a leader in both theoretical and experimental nuclear physics, as testified by the presence on its territory of several institutes and laboratories dedicated to this field of research, like CERN (Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire), the world’s largest particle physics laboratory. Italy, represented mainly by INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), is one of the main members of this community. One of the most important projects supported by INFN is SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species), which aim is to develop a facility for the production of radioactive ion beams (RIBs) in one of the four national laboratories of INFN, LNL (Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro). The facility is designed to produce and deliver to users both proton-rich and neutron-rich nuclei (range of mass 80-160 amu) to be used for nuclear physics research, as well as other applications in different fields of science. The generation of the aforementioned isotopes will occur inside a properly designed target, which represents the core of the whole project. The choice of the proper material for the target, both in terms of composition and properties, is of vital importance in determining the quantity and type of the produced isotopes. In this work, the synthesis and characterization of different types of target materials are presented. The results of experimental tests performed on some of the produced materials, in configurations very similar to those intended for the final SPES facility are also reported. Chapter 1 gives a general overview of the SPES project and its context whereas chapter 2 introduces the main topics related to the on-line behavior of the SPES target, relative to both its layout and to the properties of the material constituting it. Chapter 3 is focused on uranium carbide, which will be used at SPES to produce neutron-rich isotopes; after a description of its main physicochemical properties, the results of two on-line tests performed on target prototypes made of this material is reported and discussed into detail. In chapter 4 the synthesis methods and release-related properties of two potential materials to be used as SPES targets for the production of proton-rich isotopes, boron and lanthanum carbides, are presente

Development and test of a method for the simultaneous measurement of heat capacity and thermal diffusivity by laser-flash technique at very high temperatures: application to uranium dioxide

The "classical" laser-flash method is today the most used technique to measure the thermal diffusivity of a wide range of materials. This work describes the development of a new technique, based on the laser-flash method, which measures simultaneously on the same sample with an absolute method the thermal diffusivity and the specific heat, and its application to a number of high melting-point refractory materials. In this work, a new data processing procedure, which takes radiative and conductive heat losses into consideration, is introduced, and the thermal diffusivity, a, and specific heat, cp are determined by fitting the entire experimental transient temperature curve. The thermal conductivity is then calculated from the measured a and cp values via the relationship = apcP, where p is the density of the material. For the calculation the measured room temperature values of p corrected to the temperature of interest via literature data on thermal expansion are used. The new technique is applied to measure the specific heat, thermal diffusivity of POCO AXM 5Q graphite, zirconium dioxide and uranium dioxide (materials of scientific and technological interest) at very high temperatures (above 1800K) from which thermal conductivity values can be calculated. The values obtained, having a precision of ~2% in the case of the thermal diffusivity, and ~7% for the specific heat and the thermal conductivity, are discussed and compared with literature data. The results obtained for uranium dioxide are used for a critical analysis of the physical mechanisms underlying the heat transport in this material