Nuclear Thermal Rockets (NTR) were developed after the Apollo era to be used as a next-step means of propulsion to reach Mars after the Moon. The main NTR program was a joint effort between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Energy (DOE), and the engine core utilized a Uranium Oxide nuclear fuel encapsulated within a Carbon matrix. The current NTR engine development program within NASA and DOE has been investigating the potential of using Tungsten instead of Carbon as the material in which to encapsulate the nuclear fuel. Accidental atmospheric reentry of an NTR and the exposure of its Tungsten Uranium Oxide (WUO_2) fuel to plasma is described in this paper. This is one project amongst various other materials testing efforts that are concurrently underway to study the potential of using WUO_2 nuclear fuel for the NTR. This research is based on the potential scenario of an accidental reentry of the NTR rocket and the resulting destruction of the engine, assuming a release of the WUO_2 fuel into the atmosphere. As the fuel would re-enter the atmosphere at high velocities, it would undergo high temperature plasma ablation. Computational analyses have been performed for the plasma ablation of Tungsten-based NTR fuel. The George Washington University (GWU) has tested samples of pure 99.9% Tungsten foil in an in-house arc jet, simulating the accidental reentry of a NTR with an exposed core. The results of these studies are explained in this paper, along with suggestions for future research.
展开▼
