Published 1991 | Version v1
Book

STAR-C thermionic space nuclear power system

  • 1. General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
  • 2. Phillips Lab., Kirtland Air Force Base, NM (United States)
  • 3. Rockwell International, Rocketdyne Div., Canoga Park, CA (United States)

Description

This paper describes a 40 kWe STAR-C thermionic reactor system designed in response to evolving Air Force space power requirements. The resulting nuclear power system is compact and has as overall system efficiency of 11.9%. The entire power conversion subsystem can be pre-launch tested at its operating conditions, independent of the nuclear heat source. System mass, which includes the reactor power subsystem and shield, the power processing and control (PP and C) subsystem and the separation boom has been optimized to 3100 kg. The STAR-C system has been designed to deliver 40.6 kWe at 95% reliability for 10 years. The system is survivable against SUPER level threats and has no possibility of single point failure

Additional details

Publishing Information

Publisher
American Nuclear Society.
Imprint Place
La Grange Park, IL (United States)
ISBN
0-89448-163
Imprint Title
Proceedings of the 26th intersociety energy conversion engineering conference
Imprint Pagination
507 p.
Journal Page Range
p. 446-451.

Conference

Title
26. intersociety energy conversion engineering (IECE) conference.
Dates
3-9 Aug 1991.
Place
Boston, MA (United States).

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
United States
INIS RN
23059778
Subject category
S21: SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS;
Resource subtype / Literary indicator
Conference
Descriptors DEI
CONTROL; DESIGN; EFFICIENCY; ENERGY CONVERSION; NUCLEAR POWER; OPERATION; OPTIMIZATION; POWER RANGE 10-100 MW; RELIABILITY; SPACE POWER REACTORS; TESTING; THERMIONIC REACTORS
Descriptors DEC
CONVERSION; MEGAWATT POWER RANGE; MOBILE REACTORS; POWER; POWER RANGE; POWER REACTORS; REACTORS

Optional Information

Secondary number(s)
CONF-910801--.