Research on Fission Induced Plasmas and Nuclear Pumped Lasers at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory

摘要

The gaseous fueled reactor system has the potential of several distinct advantages as an advanced power source. Because of these advantages it appears possible that this may be an ideal reactor for power production and for space propulsion. Characteristics such as high operating efficiency and low uranium inventory are particularly attractive. Advances in certain technology areas must be accomplished before it will be possible to produce an engineering design for a gaseous fueled power station. Corrosion problems of fluorine and uranium hexafluoride with materials must be solved, however, recent advances indicate these problems are not insurmountable. The vortex flow of buffer gas confinement obviates the most severe environment in the flow system. The feasibility of such confinement has been demonstrated successfully for small-scale devices and the present experimental activity is aimed at demonstration of the principle in the reactor environment at moderate power levels. Concurrently, efforts are being made to address the problems of adapting the gas core reactor concept to be used as a power supply for nuclear pumped lasers. Experimental and theoretical work is producing better understanding of fundamental phenomena, however, further progress must be made before engineering problems may be addressed. Continued work in this field is particularly interesting to NASA because of the potentially important benefits in space applications. (ERA citation 04:013418)