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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.
Alan S. Icenhour, Louis M. Toth, Robert M. Wham, R. R. Brunson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 146 | Number 2 | May 2004 | Pages 206-209
Technical Note | Nuclear Plant Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3499
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Alpha radiolysis experiments have been performed on NpO2 that contains sorbed moisture. A high dose rate to the sample was achieved by spiking it with ~7000 ppm 244Cm during preparation. Pressure monitoring of sample containers showed that a low, steady-state pressure plateau is reached. This plateau indicates a situation in which the forward reaction (i.e., radiolysis of water) is equal to the back reaction (i.e., the reformation of H2O). In this technical note, a simple kinetic model that can be used for predicting steady-state pressures under practical conditions is described.
