Open AccessThermionic Reactor Design Studies
Author(s) -
Alfred Schock
Publication year - 1994
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/1033362
Subject(s) - thermionic emission , nuclear engineering , converters , diode , topaz , core (optical fiber) , engineering , mechanical engineering , electrical engineering , physics , nuclear physics , chemistry , telecommunications , mineralogy , electron , voltage
Paper presented at the 29th IECEC in Monterey, CA in August 1994. The present paper describes some of the author's conceptual designs and their rationale, and the special analytical techniques developed to analyze their (thermionic reactor) performance. The basic designs, first published in 1963, are based on single-cell converters, either double-ended diodes extending over the full height of the reactor core or single-ended diodes extending over half the core height. In that respect they are similar to the thermionic fuel elements employed in the Topaz-2 reactor subsequently developed in the Soviet Union, copies of which were recently imported by the U.S. As in the Topaz-2 case, electrically heated steady-state performance tests of the converters are possible before fueling