BORGALLOY DEVELOPMENT STATUS FOR PASSIVE NTP REACTIVITY CONTROL

摘要

The following abstract details the current development status of BORGalloy, an innovative rapid depletion burnable poison for implementation in nuclear thermal propulsion. BORGalloy has been successfully manufactured on a lab scale and tested in relevant operating environments (radiation and hot hydrogen). In this work, new and cost-effective methods for nuclear and non-nuclear testing have been implemented. These include the use of the Department of Energy High Flux Research Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the NTREES test facility at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The resulting post-experiment analysis has demonstrated the feasibility of manufacturing BORGalloy as well as its ability to perform in the desired operating environment.