A team comprising university students and personnel from the Department of Energy‘s Oak Ridge National Laboratory recently conducted an experiment to determine the effectiveness of a new fuel coating technique the laboratory is developing.
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NTP Technology
The fuel coating is meant to protect the critical components of a rocket driven by a nuclear thermal propulsion—or NTP—system, whose reactor generates high levels of heat and radiation, ORNL said Wednesday.
NTP systems are regarded as more efficient than traditional chemical propulsion and are expected to reduce travel time in long-range space exploration missions, like those heading to Mars.
Experiment Details
The experiment, which was carried out at the Ohio State University Research Reactor, involved subjecting multiple nuclear thermal rocket fuel sample surrogates to irradiation and repeated temperature cycling over two days. The samples were coated with zirconium carbide, which works to protect against hydrogen infiltration and corrosion without affecting reactor neutronics.
The experiment also involved the use of the In-Pile Steady-State Extreme Temperature Testbed, a specialized furnace that works to rapidly heat materials while making it possible to handle them soon after neutron irradiation. The sample surrogates were placed within this testbed.
The team will analyze the results of the experiment later this spring. Brandon Wilson, a staff member at ORNL’s Nuclear and Extreme Environment Measurement group, said, “The findings from this experiment will represent a crucial step in advancing nuclear thermal propulsion technology for future human space exploration.”
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