DISQUS

Will_Brown · 1 year ago

Given the usual conditions on the lunar surface, its not clear to me just how much of the reactor shielding would be necessary for a unit intended to operate there. Not sure how much of a weight savings is practicable, but it seems likely to be in the hundredweights at least.

honzik · 1 year ago

Brian, perhaps I've misread the patent, but it appears to me that the fuel is not liquid metal, rather, it is particles of uranium hydride, which remain in a solid form. The feedback mechanism that maintains thermal control is the desorption/ absorption of hydrogen from the particles of uranium hydride and leaving the core to be absorbed/desorbed by another hydride. If the core were metal, this process wouldn't be in play, and the uranium metal would go subcritical due to the lack of moderator in the core.

There is an option for liquid metals in the heat pipes, but that's a different story. Please correct me if I've got it wrong. Cheers, Honzik

nextbigfuture · 1 year ago

Your right it is powdered/particles of uranium hydride.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf33.html
the world nuclear report on small reactors had placed the HPG under the Liquid Metal cooled Fast Reactors section. thus I had dumped it in the same category. So would it be better to call it a solid core reactor ?

From the small reactor article:
The Hyperion Power Module (HPM) is a small self-regulating hydrogen-moderated and potassium-cooled reactor producing 70 MWt /25 MWe fuelled by powdered uranium hydride. It is designed to operate for 5 - 10 years before being returned to the factory for refuelling. It is about 1.5 metres wide and 2 metres high, so easily portable, and has no moving parts. Hyperion Power Generation has had preliminary discussions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a US design certification application is possible in 2012, when the company plans to begin manufacturing the plants in New Mexico. The design is licensed from the DOE Los Alamos laboratory there.