Nuclear reactors for space

Published: December 6, 2009, 9:47 am

Topics:

Nuclear Energy (main)

This EOE article is adapted from an information paper published by the World Nuclear Association (WNA). WNA information papers are frequently updated, so for greater detail or more up to date numbers, please see the latest version on WNA website (link at end of article).

IntroductionAfter a gap of several years, there is a revival of interest in the use of nuclear fission power for space missions. While Russia has used over 30 fission reactors in space, the USA has flown only one—the SNAP-10A (System for Nuclear Auxiliary Power) in 1965. The SNAP-10A reactor. (Source: NASA (Nuclear reactors for space) )

From 1959-73, there was a US nuclear rocket program—the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications (NERVA)—focused on nuclear power replacing chemical rockets for the latter stages of launches. NERVA used graphite-core reactors, heating hydrogen and expelling it through a nozzle. Some 20 engines were tested in Nevada and yielded thrust up to more than half that of the space shuttle launchers. Since then, "nuclear rockets" have been about space propulsion, not launches. The successor to NERVA is today's nuclear thermal rocket (NTR).

Another early idea was the US Project Orion, which would launch a substantial spacecraft from the Earth using a series of small nuclear explosions to propel it. The project commenced in 1958 and was aborted when the Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty of 1963 made it illegal, but radioactive fallout could have been a major problem. The Orion idea is still alive as other means of generating the propulsive pulses are considered.

Radioisotope systems

So far, radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) have been the main power source for US space work over more than 40 years, since 1961. The high decay heat of plutonium-238 (²³⁸Pu) (0.56 W/g) enables its use as an electricity source in the RTGs of spacecraft, satellites, navigation beacons, etc. Heat from the oxide fuel is converted to electricity through static thermoelectric elements (solid-state thermocouples), with no moving parts. RTGs are safe, reliable and maintenance-free, and can provide heat or electricity for decades under very harsh conditions, particularly where solar power is not feasible.

Thus far, 45 RTGs have powered 25 US space vehicles including Apollo, Pioneer, Viking, Voyager, Galileo, Ulysses and New Horizons space missions as well as many civil and military satellites. The Cassini spacecraft carries three RTGs providing 870 watts of power en route to Saturn. Voyager spacecraft which have sent back pictures of distant planets have already operated for over 20 years and are expected to send back signals powered by their RTGs for another 15-25 years. The Viking and Rover landers on Mars depended on RTG power sources, as will the Mars Rovers to be launched in 2009.

The latest RTG is a 290 watt system known as the GPHS RTG. The thermal power source for this system is the General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS). Each GPHS contains four iridium-clad ²³⁸Pu fuel pellets, stands 5 cm tall, 10 cm square and weighs 1.44 kg. Eighteen GPHS units power one GPHS RTG. The Multi-Mission RTG (MMRTG), a current research focus, will use 8 GPHS units producing 2 kW that can then be used to generate 100 watts of electricity.

The Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG) is based on a 55-watt electric converter powered by one GPHS unit. The hot end of the Stirling converter reaches 650°C and heated helium drives a free piston reciprocating in a linear alternator, heat being rejected at the cold end of the engine. The AC is then converted to 55 watts direct current (DC). This Stirling engine produces about four times as much electric power from the plutonium fuel than an RTG. Thus each SRG will utilize two Stirling converter units with about 500 watts of thermal power supplied by two GPHS units and will deliver 100-120 watts of electric power. The SRG has been extensively tested but has not yet flown.

Russia has also developed RTGs using polonium-210—two are still in orbit on 1965 Cosmos navigation satellites. But Russian research was primarily focused on fission reactors for space power systems. In addition to RTGs, Radioactive Heater Units (RHUs) are used on satellites and spacecraft to keep instruments warm enough to function efficiently. Their output is only about one watt and they mostly use ²³⁸Pu—typically about 2.7g. Dimensions are about 3 cm long and 2.5 cm diameter, weighing 40 grams. Some 240 have been used so far by the US and two are in shut-down Russian Lunar Rovers on the moon. There will be eight on each of the US Mars Rovers launched in 2003.

Both RTGs and RHUs are designed to survive major launch and re-entry accidents intact, as is the SRG.

Fission systems: heat

Over 100 kWe, fission systems have a distinct cost advantage over RTGs.

The US SNAP-10A launched in 1965 was a 45 kWt thermal nuclear fission reactor that produced 650 watts using a thermoelectric converter and operated for 43 days; it was shut down due to a satellite (not reactor) malfunction but remains in orbit today.

The last US space reactor initiative was a joint NASA-DOE-Defence Department program developing the SP-100 reactor—a 2 MWt fast reactor unit and thermoelectric system delivering up to 100 kWe as a multi-use power supply for orbiting missions or as a lunar/Martian surface power station. This was terminated in the early 1990s after absorbing nearly US$1 billion. The design used uranium nitride fuel and was lithium-cooled.

There was also a Timberwind pebble bed reactor (PBR) concept under the Defence Department Multi-Megawatt (MMW) space power program during the late 1980s, in collaboration with Department of Energy (DOE). This had power requirements well beyond any civil space program.

Between 1967 and 1988, the former Soviet Union launched 31 low-powered fission reactors in Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellites (RORSATs) on Cosmos missions. They utilized thermoelectric converters to produce electricity, as with the RTGs. Romashka reactors were their initial nuclear power source, a fast spectrum graphite reactor with 90%-enriched uranium carbide fuel operating at high temperature. The Bouk fast reactor then produced 3 kW for up to 4 months. Later reactors, such as on Cosmos-954 that re-entered over Canada in 1978, had uranium-molybdenum fuel rods and a layout similar to the US heatpipe reactors described below.

These designs were followed by the Topaz reactors with thermionic conversion systems, generating about 5 kWe of electricity for on-board uses. This was a US idea developed during the 1960s in Russia. In Topaz-2, each fuel pin (96% enriched uranium dioxide (UO₂)), sheathed in an emitter, is surrounded by a collector that form the 37 fuel elements which penetrate the cylindrical ZrH moderator. This in turn is surrounded by a beryllium neutron reflector containing 12 rotating control drums. NaK (a sodium-potassium alloy) coolant surrounds each fuel element.

Topaz-1 was flown in 1987 on Cosmos 1818 and 1867. It was capable of delivering power for 3-5 years for ocean surveillance. Later Topaz designs were aiming for 40 kWe via an international project, undertaken largely in the USA starting in 1990. Two Topaz-2 reactors (without fuel) were sold to the USA in 1992. Budget restrictions in 1993 forced cancellation of a Nuclear Electric Propulsion Spaceflight Test Program associated with this reactor design.

Fission systems: propulsion

For spacecraft propulsion, once launched, some experience has been gained with nuclear thermal propulsion systems (NTR), that are said to be well-developed and proven. Nuclear fission heats a hydrogen propellant that is stored as liquid in cooled tanks. The hot gas (about 2500°C) is expelled through a nozzle to give thrust that may be augmented by injection of liquid oxygen into the supersonic hydrogen exhaust; this is more efficient than chemical reactions. Bimodal versions will run electrical systems on board a spacecraft, including powerful radars, as well as provide propulsion. Compared with nuclear electric plasma systems, these have much more thrust for shorter periods and can be used for launches and landings.

However, attention is now turning to nuclear electric systems, where nuclear reactors are a heat source for electric ion drives, expelling plasma out of a nozzle to propel spacecraft already in space. Superconducting magnetic cells ionize hydrogen or xenon, heat it to extremely high temperatures (millions °C), accelerate it and expel it at very high velocity (e.g., 30 km/sec) to provide thrust. Research on one version, the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), draws on that for magnetically-confined fusion power (tokamak) for electricity generation, but here the plasma is deliberately leaked to give thrust. The system works most efficiently at low thrust (that can be sustained), with small plasma flow, but high thrust operation is possible. The design is very efficient, with 99% conversion of electric to kinetic energy.

Heatpipe Power System

Heatpipe Power System (HPS) reactors are compact fast reactors producing up to 100 kWe for about ten years to power a spacecraft or planetary surface vehicle. They have been developed since 1994 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico as a robust and low technical-risk system with an emphasis on high reliability and safety. They employ heatpipes to transfer energy from the reactor core to make electricity using Stirling cycle or Brayton cycle converters.

Energy from fission is conducted from the fuel pins to the heatpipes filled with sodium vapor that carry it to the heat exchangers and then in hot gas to the power conversion systems to make electricity. The gas is 72% helium and 28% xenon.

The reactor itself contains a number of heatpipe modules with the fuel. Each module has its central heatpipe with rhenium-clad fuel sleeves arranged around it. They are the same diameter and contain 97% enriched uranium nitride fuel, all within the cladding of the module. The modules form a compact hexagonal core.

Control is obtained by six stainless steel-clad beryllium drums, each 11 or 13 cm diameter, with boron carbide forming a 120 degree arc on each. The drums fit within the six sections of the beryllium radial neutron reflector surrounding the core, and rotate to effect control, moving the boron carbide in or out. Shielding is dependent on the mission or application, but lithium hydride in stainless steel cans is the main form of neutron shielding.

The SAFE-400 space fission reactor (Safe Affordable Fission Engine) is a 400 kWt HPS producing 100 kWe to power a space vehicle using two Brayton power systems—gas turbines driven directly by the hot gas from the reactor. Heat exchanger outlet temperature is 880°C. The reactor has 127 identical heatpipe modules made of molybdenum, or niobium with 1% zirconium. Each has three fuel pins 1 cm diameter, nesting together into a compact hexagonal core 25 cm across. The fuel pins are 70 cm long (fuelled length 56 cm), the total heatpipe length is 145 cm, extending 75 cm above the core, where they are coupled with the heat exchangers. The core with reflector has a 51 cm diameter. The mass of the core is about 512 kg and each heat exchanger is 72 kg. SAFE has also been tested with an electric ion drive.

A smaller version of this kind of reactor is the HOMER-15—the Heatpipe-Operated Mars Exploration Reactor. It is a15 kW thermal unit similar to the larger SAFE model, and stands 2.4 meters tall including the heat exchanger and 3 kWe Stirling engine (see above). It operates at only 600°C and is therefore able to use stainless steel for fuel pins and heatpipes, which are 1.6 cm diameter. It has 19 sodium heatpipe modules with 102 fuel pins bonded to them, 4 or 6 per pipe, that hold a total of 72 kg of fuel. The heatpipes are 106 cm long and fuel height 36 cm. The core is hexagonal (18 cm across) with six beryllium oxide (BeO) pins in the corners. Total mass of reactor system is 214 kg, and diameter is 41 cm.

In the 1980s, the French ERATO program considered three 20 kWe turboelectric power systems for space operation. All used a Brayton cycle converter with a helium-xenon mix as working fluid. The first system was a sodium-cooled uranium dioxide-fuelled fast reactor operating at 670°C, the second a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (thermal or epithermal neutron spectrum) working at 840°C, and the third a lithium-cooled uranium nitride-fuelled fast reactor working at 1150°C.

Project Prometheus 2003

In 2002, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced its Nuclear Systems Initiative for space projects, and in 2003 this was renamed Project Prometheus and given increased funding. Its purpose is to enable a major step change in the capability of space missions. Nuclear-powered space travel will be much faster than is now possible, and will enable manned missions to Mars.

One part of Prometheus, a NASA project with substantial involvement by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is to develop the Multi-Mission Thermoelectric Generator and the Stirling Radioisotope Generator described in the RTG section above.

A more radical objective of Prometheus is to produce a space fission reactor system such as those described above for both power and propulsion that is safe to launch and will operate for many years. This will have much greater power than RTGs. Power of 100 kW is envisaged for a nuclear electric propulsion system driven by plasma.

The fiscal year 2004 budget proposal was US$279 million, with $3 billion to be spent over five years. This consists of $186 million ($1 billion over 5 years) building on last year's allocation, plus $93 million ($2 billion over five years) towards a first flight mission to Jupiter—the Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter—expected to launch in 2017 and explore for a decade. Project Prometheus received $430 million in 200r budget.

In 2003, NASA's Project Prometheus successfully tested a High Power Electric Propulsion (HiPEP) ion engine. This operates by ionizing xenon with microwaves. At the rear of the engine is a pair of rectangular metal grids that are charged with 6,000 volts of electric potential. The force of this electric field exerts a strong electrostatic pull on the xenon ions, accelerating them and producing the thrust needed to propel the spacecraft. The design was tested at up to 12 kW, though twice that is envisaged. The thruster is designed for a 7- to 10-year lifetime with high fuel efficiency, and to be powered by a small nuclear reactor.

Further Reading

• WNA paper on Nuclear reactors for space

Citation

Hore-Lacy, I., & Association, W. (2009). Nuclear reactors for space. Retrieved from http://editors.eol.org/eoearth/wiki/Nuclear_reactors_for_space