Water and regolith shielding for surface reactor missions

David I. Poston, Brian J. Ade, Pratap Sadasivan, Katrina J. Leichliter, David D. Dixon

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper investigates potential shielding options for surface power fission reactors. The majority of work is focused on a lunar shield that uses a combination of water in stainless-steel cans and lunar regolith. The major advantage of a water-based shield is that development, testing, and deployment should be relatively inexpensive. This shielding approach is used for three surface reactor concepts: (1) a moderated spectrum, NaK cooled, Hastalloy/UZrH reactor, (2) a fast-spectrum, NaK-cooled, SS/UO2 reactor, and (3) a fast-spectrum, K-heat-pipe-cooled, SS/UO2 reactor. For this study, each of these reactors is coupled to a 25-kWt Stirling power system, designed for 5 year life. The shields are designed to limit the dose both to the Stirling alternators and potential astronauts on the surface. The general configuration used is to bury the reactor, but several other options exist as well. Dose calculations are presented as a function of distance from reactor, depth of buried hole, water boron concentration (if any), and regolith repacked density.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSTAIF 2006
Subtitle of host publication10th Conf. on Thermophysics Applic. in Micrograv.; 23rd Symp. on Space Nucl. Power and Propulsion; 4th Conf.on Human/Robotic Technol. and the Nat. Vission for Space Explor. on Space Colon.
Pages953-966
Number of pages14
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 20 2006
Externally publishedYes
EventSTAIF 2006: 10th Conf. on Thermophysics Applic. in Micrograv.; 23rd Symp. on Space Nucl. Power and Propulsion; 4th Conf. on Human/Robotic Technol. and the Nat. Vision for Space Explor.; 4th Symp. on Space Coloniz.; 3rd Symp.on New Front. and Future C - Albuquerque, NM, United States
Duration: Feb 12 2006Feb 16 2006

Publication series

NameAIP Conference Proceedings
Volume813
ISSN (Print)0094-243X
ISSN (Electronic)1551-7616

Conference

ConferenceSTAIF 2006: 10th Conf. on Thermophysics Applic. in Micrograv.; 23rd Symp. on Space Nucl. Power and Propulsion; 4th Conf. on Human/Robotic Technol. and the Nat. Vision for Space Explor.; 4th Symp. on Space Coloniz.; 3rd Symp.on New Front. and Future C
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAlbuquerque, NM
Period02/12/0602/16/06

Keywords

  • Power
  • Regolith
  • Shield design
  • Shielding
  • Space reactor
  • Surface
  • Water

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