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Product Name: Gas Core Reactors
Product Description
 NEP with Vapor Core Reactor & MHD
The Innovative Nuclear Space Power and Propulsion Institute (INSPI) at the
University of Florida has gathered together a multidisciplinary team of
researchers who combine skills in materials science, computational fluid
dynamics, radiological engineering and electrodynamics for the design and
analysis of advanced nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) systems.
INSPI envisions a fully integrated ultralight and ultracompact power and
propulsion system that would be capable of safely transporting a human crew to
other planets of our solar system. INSPI and its industrial partners have
developed concepts based on very low specific mass vapor core reactors with
power magnetohydrodynamic (VCR/MHD). These systems could provide multimegawatt
power for NEP systems that dramatically reduce the mission time for human
exploration of the entire solar system.
The order of magnitude specific mass reduction in VCR/MHD systems is achieved by
combing the fuel and heat transport medium into one and by using an ultrahigh
temperature MHD Rankine cycle. Further reduction in total mass of the NEP system
is achieved by direct coupling of VCR/MHD power to a whole host of electric
thrusters. Current INSPI research is focused on the integration of the VCR/MHD
system with the VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasmadynamic Rocket)
being developed by the Advanced Space Propulsion Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson
Space Center. While a comprehensive program is beyond any one laboratory’s
effort, work at INSPI touchs upon three major areas of NEP system design:
Gas & Vapor Fuel Reactor Design
• Multiphase UF4 based Fuels
• High Temperature Compatible Materials
• Thermo-fluid Dynamic of Fissioning Plasma
• Static and Dynamic Nuclear Design
Although ultrahigh temperature gas core reactors (GCRs) or vapor core reactors
(VCRs) are the way of the future, these advanced nuclear reactors have not been
successfully taken from the drawing board and scaled laboratory experiments into
prototype design. Coupled neutronics and computational fluid dynamic analyses
have been performed to establish the nuclear and heat transport design
characteristics of these systems. Designs for safe containment vessels for the
high temperature UF4 based fuels, and design of fuel circulation systems to meet
the cooling requirements of such reactors, are also being addressed.
Fission Power and Radiation Enhanced Ionization
• Vapor Core Reactor Fuel/Working Fluid Conductivity
• Non-equilibrium Electron Temperature
• Ionization Enhanced Electron Mobility
The advantage of fissioning vapor or gas reactors is that they provide
tremendous gas/working fluid ionization potential. This aspect of the research
involves finding out how to optimize the ionized gas electrical conductivity for
later conversion into electric power using MHD turbines. Both electron density
and electron mobility contribute to conductivity but the ion density can be a
problem when it gets too high and allows overly rapid recombination of electron
and positive ions, thus reducing the electrical conductivity.
Efforts at INSPI are aimed at understanding how to maximize the electron
mobility and maintain a reasonable but not too high ion density. Electron
mobility, and hence ultimately the power conversion efficiency, is strongly
connected with the reactor geometry, neutron flux, fission power density, and
the configuration of the down-stream magnetic turbine. With fission fragment
interactions in the medium, electrical conductivities of about 10 to 100 mho/m
should be attainable.
MHD Power Conversion
• Fuel Separation Technology
• High Electron Mobility
• Power Matching
• Cycle Analysis
Research focuses on analyzing combined MHD thermodynamic cycles to achieve near
optimal efficiency in energy conversion from the reactor output. Indeed,
magnetic “turbines” are the only existing power generators that can operate
efficiently at temperatures in excess of 1500 ºC which can be achieved in vapor
core reactors. Proposed MHD generators will extract energy directly, at the
highest quality, from the high conductivity working fluid expelled at high
velocity from the reactor core. The remaining heat content of the fluid will be
extracted at a lower temperature in a closed Rankine cycle before returning to
the reactor.
Company Details
Founded in 1985, INSPI research covers a broad range of activities including feasibility analysis for ultracompact nuclear power reactor concepts as well as experimental and theoretical research to establish the fundamental properties of high... more
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