Americium Nuclear Battery for Space Power Applications

摘要

This work presents simplified 242m Am fueled nuclear battery concept design featuringrndirect fission products energy conversion and passive heat rejection. The performed calculations of power conversion efficiency under thermal and nuclear design constraints showed that 14 W/kg power density can be achieved, which corresponds to conversion efficiency of about 6%. Total power of the battery scales linearly with its surface area. 144 kW of electric power can be produced by a nuclear battery with an external radius of about 174 cm and total mass of less than 10300 kg. The mass of 242m Am fuel for such a system is 3200 gram.