Related papers: Molten-Salt Depleted-Uranium Reactor
The only military application in which depleted-uranium (DU) alloys out-perform present-day tungsten alloys is long-rod penetration into a main battle-tank's armor. However, this advantage is only on the order of 10%, and it disappears when…
A re-evaluation of the Molten Salt Breeder Reactor concept has revealed problems related to its safety and to the complexity of the reprocessing considered. A reflection is carried out anew in view of finding innovative solutions leading to…
The background, basis, feasibility, structure, evidence, and geophysical implications of a naturally occurring Terracentric nuclear fission georeactor are reviewed. For a nuclear fission reactor to exist at the center of the Earth, all of…
The basic physics for plasma core rocket engines was already completed in 1985. At the time successful containment of a fissioning uranium hexafluoride U(93%)F6 plasma was achieved for ~120 seconds using an argon vortex. Unfortunately,…
Fossil fuels, which meet most of humanity's energy needs, cause climate change due to their high carbon emissions. There are two types of energy sources that can replace fossil fuels: renewable and nuclear. Nuclear energy sources are more…
Future advanced nuclear rocket propulsion, and the availability of new nuclear power cycle designs, will benefit substantially from the large current investment in alternative nuclear energy that is underway today. We propose a new nuclear…
The operation of a nuclear power station powering Deep Space transport is presented in the paper. The power station consists of a Gas Core Reactor (GCR) with magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generator. A new model of gas core reactor which has…
If fusion power reactors are to be feasible, it will still be necessary to convert the energy of the nuclear reaction into usable form. The heat produced will be removed from the reactor core by a primary coolant, which might be water,…
For a sustained human presence on the Moon, robust in-situ resource utilisation supply chains to provide consumables and propellant are necessary. A promising process is molten salt electrolysis, which typically requires temperatures in…
Fusion reactors can permanently remediate mercury by using it as a neutron multiplier: each (n,2n) reaction reduces the neutron number towards ${}^{197}$Hg which quickly decays into stable gold, irreversibly removing it from the environment…
The Centurion-Halite experiment demonstrated the feasibility of igniting a deuterium-tritium micro-explosion with an energy of not more than a few megajoule, and the Mike test, the feasibility of a pure deuterium explosion with an energy of…
The development of nuclear fuels requires unsteady/transient testing for design process and qualification under postulated accident conditions. Breach, rupture, fracture, melting, and other fuel failure modes may occur during the use of…
Nuclear reactors have served as the antineutrino source for many fundamental physics experiments. The techniques developed by these experiments make it possible to use these very weakly interacting particles for a practical purpose. The…
Molten fluorides are known to show favorable thermophysical properties which make them good candidate coolants for nuclear fission reactors. Here we investigate the special case of mixtures of lithium fluoride and thorium fluoride, which…
In this paper we develop a simple model of the penetration process of a long rod through an uniform target. Applying the momentum and energy conservation laws, we derive an analytical relation which shows how the penetration depth depends…
Cubic-meter-sized antineutrino detectors can be used to non-intrusively, robustly and automatically monitor and safeguard a wide variety of nuclear reactor types, including power reactors, research reactors, and plutonium production…
In a conventional light water reactor loaded with a range of uranium and plutonium-based fuel mixtures, the variation in antineutrino production over the cycle reflects both the initial core fissile inventory and its evolution. Under the…
Deeper insight into the features of a reactor as a source of antineutrinos is required for making further advances in studying the fundamental properties of the neutrino. The relationship between the thermal power of a reactor and the rate…
Nuclear reactors are a source of electron antineutrinos due to the presence of unstable fission products that undergo $\beta^-$ decay. They will be exploited by the JUNO experiment to determine the neutrino mass ordering and to get very…
We present a design for a small subcritical molten salt thorium breeder reactor driven by an electron accelerator. Such a reactor could provide a safe and simple power source fuelled by thorium, without generating long-lived minor…