[1G11-14] Space Nuclear Utilization

4:20 PM - 4:35 PM JST(7:20 AM - 7:35 AM UTC)

[1G14] Effects and countermeasures of power distribution change by control drum rotation and Xenon override in nuclear thermal rocket core.

*Oki Morita¹, Shinichi Namizono¹ (1. UNIVERSITY OF FUKUI)

Keywords:

Nuclear-thermal rocket,high-temperature gas-cooled reactor,Xenon override,control drum,power distribution change

Nuclear-thermal rockets use a nuclear reactor to heat hydrogen gas, which is then injected into the rocket to generate propulsion. Since nuclear-thermal rockets can maintain high power for a long period of time, they can achieve better performance than existing chemical rockets. The reactor in a nuclear-thermal rocket is controlled by controlling the amount of neutrons reflected into the core by a control drum placed around the periphery of the core. The change in the power distribution in the core during the operation of the control drum is not clear. Therefore, in this study, we used the analysis code SCALE to analyze the change in the power distribution in the core when the control drum is rotated during rocket operation.