Date of Award

5-6-2024

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Bahram Nassersharif

Abstract

This senior capstone project regards the design and development of a fission based atomic reactor to be used to power a small lunar colony. This reactor must provide sufficient power for several systems including life support, materials mining and processing, and rover charging. It must also be robust, reliable, modular in respect to the base’s power grid (i.e. can be integrated or removed with ease) and must also require little to no maintenance. Research regarding NASA’s plans for such a lunar outpost, review of nuclear reactor literature, and estimated power consumption for sub-systems led to the following design requirements:

  1. 100--150-kilowatt electrical power output
  2. 20-year lifespan without refueling
  3. Weight of less than 50 metric tons
  4. Combined setup and startup time of less than 48 hours
  5. Redundant systems resistant to environmental hazards
  6. Negative thermal coefficient of reactivity

Literature and patent searches were then completed in October, providing pertinent concepts and equations to be used in the design of the system. After the generation of concepts and the selection of the best aspects of each in November, it was decided that the reactor would use UO2 as the primary fuel in a series of rods cooled by heat pipes with a sodium working fluid. Control is to be actuated with six drum-type rotating cylinders, coated in Boron-10, as well as a single control rod for redundancy. Cooling will be through heat pipes that will transfer heat out of the core to a series of radiator panels. A 3D model of the final system has been completed in Autodesk Inventor. This model has been verified through a series of simulations run by Inventor, COMSOL, and OpenMC.

Comments

Team Name: Team 22H

Company Sponsor: NASA

Document Reference: URI-MCE-402-022H-2023

Download

Share

COinS