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NASA announces plan for space nuclear propulsion by 2028
Yesterday NASA announced a series of initiatives, including plans to launch a nuclear electric propulsion spacecraft to Mars in December 2028 and a three-phase plan to establish a lunar base incorporating nuclear-driven heat and power.
Chase N. Taylor, Thomas F. Fuerst, Paul W. Humrickhouse, Robert J. Pawelko, Masashi Shimada
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 7 | October-November 2021 | Pages 829-835
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1880133
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Future fusion reactors must be able to breed the tritium they will consume. Several breeding and tritium extraction technologies are under investigation internationally. PbLi is of particular interest as a breeder material. A new forced convection PbLi loop, the Tritium Extraction eXperiment (TEX), is being designed and constructed to investigate tritium extraction from PbLi. Specifically, TEX will serve to investigate the extraction efficiency of various vacuum permeator membranes and configurations. The major components of the loop include a moving magnet pump, reverse permeator, furnace test section, analysis chamber, supply tank, and plenum. As significant hazards are present in such experiments, safety is an integral focus of the experimental design.