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OSTP memo guides space nuclear plan
A White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum released on Tuesday guides NASA, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense on their roles in deploying near-term space nuclear power.
This follows a series of NASA announcements last month—driven by the executive order “Ensuring American Space Superiority,” issued by Trump in December—including an ambitious timeline for establishing a moon base, which would rely on fission surface power (FSP) to survive the long lunar night at the moon’s south pole, and plans for a nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) rocket to be launched in 2028.
Ernie Kee, John Hasenbein, Alex Zolan, Phil Grissom, Seyed Reihani, Zahra Mohaghegh, Fatma Yilmaz, Bruce Letellier, Vera Moiseytseva, Rodolfo Vaghetto, David Imbaratto, Tatsuya Sakurahara
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 2 | November 2016 | Pages 270-291
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-34
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An approach is described that would use test data to evaluate the risk associated with the concerns raised in Generic Safety Issue 191 (GSI-191). The relationship to the elements of quantitative risk-informed regulation for addressing the concerns raised in GSI-191 in pressurized water reactor (PWR) plant licensing is described. Use of experimental data from a deterministic sump performance test to establish scenario success for tested debris loads is summarized and compared to the licensing requirements in the regulations. Generation and transport of debris to the emergency core cooling system sump from a loss-of-coolant accident is described, and data are shown for a particular PWR. Application of the analysis results to a license amendment for an operating PWR is summarized.