Pin and Cermet hybrid bimodal reactor

Since the late 1950's the U. S. has embarked on a number of space nuclear reactor power and propulsion programs. Some programs were to provide electrical power for spacecraft with a potential for nuclear electric propulsion. Other programs focused on thermal propulsion systems that may have also produced smaller amounts of auxiliary electric power. Recently the USAF Phillips Laboratory expressed interest in a bimodal reactor system that would, as its primary mission, provide both electric power and thermal propulsion. Because of requirements for both long-life (10 years) operation at lower temperatures as an electrical power source as well as short-term high temperature propulsion operation, no single previously developed fuel and reactor readily met the Air Force requirements. The Pin and Cermet Hybrid Bimodal Reactor concept described in this paper combines two previously developed fuel types into a single nuclear reactor that can meet the two disparate requirements. copyright 1995 American Institute of Physics