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NASA announces plan for space nuclear propulsion by 2028
Yesterday NASA announced a series of initiatives, including plans to launch a nuclear electric propulsion spacecraft to Mars in December 2028 and a three-phase plan to establish a lunar base incorporating nuclear-driven heat and power.
A. Kenigsberg, D. Hasan, E. Elias
Nuclear Technology | Volume 50 | Number 3 | October 1980 | Pages 219-224
Technical Paper | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT80-A32525
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A hypothetical accident is analyzed, in which an external (outof-plant) natural or man-made event causes a loss-of-coolant accident after penetrating the containment wall The computer codes CONTEMPT and RELAP4 have been used to study the containment thermal-hydraulic behavior during the accident. The radioactive materials outflow rate is calculated for a wide range of anticipated breach sizes, assuming perfect mixing in the air-steam-water mixture in the containment building. Typically, there is only a low pressure buildup in the initially breached containment. Therefore, the calculated fission product release rate is lower than the predicted rate in case the containment fractures in a later phase of the accident.