The SNAP 10/A nuclear-powered satellite was launched into space in 1965. The present work discusses the development of a coupled neutronic-thermal hydraulics model with the high-fidelity multiphysics code Cardinal for SNAP 10/A. A comparison of neutronic benchmarks between OpenMC and MCNP5 shows a difference of 304+/-70 pcm. The primary source of difference is that MCNP5 uses a combination of cross-section libraries ENDF/B-VI and ENDF/B-V for minor isotopes. At the same time, the present work utilizes ENDF/B-VIII.0. A comparison against experimental results showed a difference of 355 pcm. A coupled model of the SNAP 10/A reactor is then developed in Cardinal. Temperature results show reasonable agreement with reference calculations.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2505.04024,
title = {Multiphysics Modeling of SNAP 10A/2 Space Reactor with Cardinal},
author = {Maximiliano Dalinger and Elia Merzari and Tri Nguyen and Michael Seneca and Richard Martineau},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.04024},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS 2025)