High Efficiency Thermionics (HET-IV) and Converter Advancement (CAP) programs. Final reports

This report contains the final report of the High Efficiency Thermionics (HET-IV) Program, Attachment A, performed at Rasor Associates, Inc. (RAI); and the final report of the Converter Advancement Program (CAP), performed at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, Attachment B. The phenomenology of cesium-oxygen thermionic converters was elucidated in these programs, and the factors that had prevented the achievement of stable, enhanced cesium-oxygen converter performance for the previous thirty years were identified. Based on these discoveries, cesium-oxygen vapor sources were developed that achieved stable performance with factor-of-two improvements in power density and thermal efficiency, relative to conventional, cesium-only ignited mode thermionic converters. Key achievements of the HET-IV/CAP programs are as follows: a new technique for measuring minute traces of oxygen in cesium atmospheres; the determination of the proper range of oxygen partial pressures for optimum converter performance--10{sup {minus}7} to 10{sup {minus}9} torr; the discovery, and analysis of the cesium-oxygen liquid migration and compositional segregation phenomena; the successful use of capillary forces to contain the migration phenomenon; the use of differential heating to control compositional segregation, and induce vapor circulation; the development of mechanically and chemically stable, porous reservoir structures; the development of precise, in situ oxygen charging methods; stable improvements in emitter performance, up to effective emitter bare work functions of 5.4 eV; stable improvements in barrier index, to value below 1.8 Volts; the development of detailed microscopic models for cesium-oxygen reservoir dynamics and collector work function behavior; and the discovery of new relationships between electrode geometry and Schock Instability