Date of Award

5-2026

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Professor Bahram Nassersharif

Abstract

This Senior Capstone project concerns the design and development of a compact fission reactor intended to provide continuous electrical power for a lunar base. The system needed to supply enough energy to support habitat life support systems, scientific operations, surface mobility, and resource processing equipment, while remaining highly reliable, minimally maintained, and easily integrated into a module’s lunar power grid. Early research was conducted into NASA’s Artemis program, prior fission surface concepts such as KRUSTY, and estimated power demands for lunar infrastructure resulted in the following design requirements:

  1. 10 to 50 kWe of continuous power (31.2 kWe achieved)
  2. Operational lifespace of at least 20 years (50+ years achieved)
  3. Total system mass under 50 metric tons (17.98 metric tons)
  4. Core diameter under 2 meters (1.22 meters)
  5. Thermal to electrical converter efficiency >20 % (24% achieved)
  6. Safe standoff distance > 1km from habitat

Patent and literature searches conducted in the Fall semester guided the development of the reactor, giving insight into the fuel section, moderator choice, and material selection. The selected design utilized the use of a cylindrical core with uranium fuel rods, boron carbide control rods, and a beryllium oxide moderator. The design took heat generated within the core, and conducted it into the Stirling converters that turned the heat into electrical energy, with all waste heat being dissipated by the radiation fin assemblies. The heat transfer was done via sodium heat pips. The radiation fins were contracted via a scissor mechanism during the launch to ensure compaction during launch. Control rod movement was managed using a bottom mounted drive mechanism with internal rollers to help with potential thermal expansion. Initial modeling, fuel burnup calculations, radiator analyses, and neutronic simulations of keff, and long term depletion demonstrates that the concept meets the power, safety, mass and reliability targets. During the initial and final design phase, the team refined geometric parameters, completed full 3D models, and used OpenMC software to perform advanced thermal, structural and neutronics verifications to prepare the system for final optimization and validation.

Comments

Team Name: Team 18

Sponsor: Professor Bahram Nassersharif 

Document Reference: URI-MCE-2026-FDR-018

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