Examples for nuclear innovation – part 2: transportable and mobile heat pipe cooled microreactors

Abstract

Abstract The second part of this publication on examples for nuclear innovation deals with new designs of transportable and mobile heat pipe cooled microreactors. Alkali metal filled heat pipes are one of the central components for the operational and residual heat removal from the reactor core, allowing to design microreactors more compact and lighter. This makes them interesting for the supply of power and heat in different (new) civilian, military and space applications. Work on heat pipe cooled reactors has been intensified, e.g. in the USA, for more than a decade. Different microreactor designs were developed or are currently under development. There exist already prototypes. Several of these microreactors are supposed to be built and put into operation on military bases. Ambitious goals exist for the use of microreactors in the field of space travel. Microreactors are intended for providing energy and heat for Moon and Mars habitats, as well as propulsion of spacecrafts. Even though the development of microreactors is currently mainly being driven forward by the military and space exploration, there is also a significant benefit for civilian applications on Earth. Due to the expected high demand for military microreactors, the next step is to set up factories for manufacturing on productions lines with governmental support. It is intended that these factories will also produce microreactor versions for the civilian market. The USA is the first country with a regulatory framework for microreactors. The USNRC has also prepared the regulation 10 CFR 57 for factory-fabricated microreactors and other reactors with comparable risk profile over the past decade. The 10 CFR 57 has been published for comment and will soon be adapted. It becomes impressively clear that in the USA, the development for civilian, military and space applications is closely connected. In other countries (e.g. China, India, Korea, Russia, etc.) there are similar activities and progress, but respective information is not reported publicly in such detail.