Extension of the CENTAR system simulation code to thermionic space nuclear reactors

This paper reports on Code for Extended Nonlinear Transient Analysis of extraterrestrial Reactors (CENTAR) which is a general purpose reactor system simulation code capable of modeling coupled heat transfer, fluid flow, neutronic, and control in an arbitrary reactor system (or subsystem) configuration. CENTAR 4.0 has been enhanced to support thermionic solid-core systems as well as liquid-metal systems. Several new models have been added. The fuel model has been enhanced to support two-dimensional heat transfer with multiple material gap interfaces. Gaps may contain thermionic converters. A quasi-steady state heat-pipe component model has been added to predict operating limits. The thermoelectric/electromagnetic (TEM) pump model in CENTAR has been extended to also model electromagnetic pumps. A thermionic energy conversion model has been added. Numerous other enhancements to code architecture, user interface, and i/o have also been added in version 4.0