20-kWe Space Reactor Power System Using Brayton Cycle Conversion

Uses of Liquid-Metal and Water Heat Pipes in Space Reactor Power Systems

“…A number of space reactor power system concepts have been developed or proposed with liquidmetal heat pipes for the passive and redundant removal and transport of the fission power generated in the reactor to the energy conversion subsystem (Angelo and Buden, 1985;El-Genk, 1994 and2008b;Ranken, 1982 andDeterman and Hagelston, 1992;, Poston et al, 2002;Ring et al, 2003; These heat pipes have also been considered for transporting waste heat from the energy conversion subsystems, and redundant and enhanced performance of heat rejection radiators. Energy conversion options considered for uses in space reactor power systems include Free-Piston Stirling Engine, FPSE (e.g., Angelo and Buden, 1985;Moriarty and Determan, 1989;Schreiber, 2001;Thieme et al, 2002 and2004;Schmitz et al, 1994 and2005), Thermoelectric (e.g., Ranken, 1982;Moriarty and Determan, 1989;Josloff et al, 1994;Marriott and Fujita, 1994;Caillat et al, 2000;Saber, 2003 and2005;Tournier, 2006b, El-Genk, 2008), Closed Brayton Cycle (CBC) with rotating turbo-machines (e.g., Harty and Mason, 1993;Shepard et al, 1994;Barrett and Reid, 2004;Barrett and Johnson, 2005;Gallo and El-Genk, 2009;El-Genk et al 2010;El-Genk, 1994 and2008), Potassium Rankine cycle (Angelo and Buden, 1985;Yoder and Graves, 1985;Bevard and Yoder, 2003), Thermionic (e.g., El-Genk and Paramonov, 1999;Ranken, 1990;…”