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Launching into tomorrow: NRIC guides new era of research and deployment
In June 2025, the Department of Energy announced the Reactor Pilot Program, an authorization pathway that allowed reactor developers to partner with the DOE to get first-of-a-kind (FOAK) reactors built and tested. Soon after, the DOE rolled out a complementary Fuel Line Pilot Program, which aimed to fast-track fuel projects. In all, 20 projects were accepted into the new programs.
Elia Puccinelli, Valerio Giusti, Angelo Pasini
Nuclear Technology | Volume 211 | Number 7 | July 2025 | Pages 1473-1495
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2024.2410637
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This work proposes a new propellant management configuration for an ammonia-fueled nuclear thermal propulsion system. The suggested configuration maximizes the advantage deriving from the autogenous pressurization of ammonia by exploiting the thermal power lost by the nuclear reactor toward the vacuum space due to leaking radiation. In this layout, a tank containing ammonia in saturated conditions is placed near the nuclear reactor and receives an input thermal power proportional to the dose of gamma rays and neutrons absorbed by the tank walls and the ammonia itself. Such a thermal power accelerates the vaporization process of the saturated ammonia, thus increasing the pressure in the tank. A pressure regulator valve exploits this overpressure to pressurize the ammonia propellant contained in a run tank to the level required by the mission by connecting the two ammonia volumes. The pressure achieved inside the run tank pushes the propellant with an adequate mass flow rate inside the nuclear reactor. The developed lumped parameter analysis shows how this propellant management system can provide a constant mass flow to the nuclear reactor without using a turbopump assembly. Moreover, it is shown how the proposed concept allows for a reduction in the radiation shield mass.