PPPS-2013: Pulsed spherical reactor dynamics in a fissionable gas

Author

Culbreth, William ; Boles, Jeremiah

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

fYear

2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

1

Abstract

Summary form only given. Pulsed gaseous fission reactors can be used to provide a transient source of neutrons for research or for power production. A mixture of gaseous, enriched UF₆ and He may serve as the fuel and moderator for this design¹. By using an external source of energy to produce a shockwave in this gaseous fuel, high density fluid produced by the shockwave can sustain criticality for a brief period of time. When the gaseous fuel is quiescent, the reactor remains subcritical.

Keywords

fission reactor fuel; fission reactor operation; gas mixtures; helium; moderators; neutron sources; plasma applications; plasma confinement; plasma shock waves; plasma sources; uranium compounds; He; UF₆-He; criticality; energy external source; enriched UF6; fissionable gas; gas mixture; gaseous fuel; high density fluid; moderator; power production; pulsed gaseous fission reactors; pulsed spherical reactor dynamics; shockwave production; transient neutron source; Analytical models; Electric shock; Energy conversion; Fluids; Fuels; Inductors; Neutrons;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Plasma Science (ICOPS), 2013 Abstracts IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA

ISSN

0730-9244

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PLASMA.2013.6634998

Filename

6634998