The United States Air Force has had a long standing interest in thermionic space power dating back to the early 1960s when a heat pipe cooled thermionic converter was demonstrated through work at the predecessor to Wright Laboratory (WL). With the exception of the short hiatus in the mid‐70s, Air Force thermionics work at Wright Laboratory has continued to the present time with thermionic technology programs including the burst power thermionic phase change concepts, heat pipe cooled planar diodes, and advanced in‐core concept developments such as composite materials, insulators and oxygenation. The Advanced Thermionics Initiative (ATI) program was organized to integrate thermionic technology advances into a converter suitable for in‐core reactor applications in the 10 to 40 kWe power range. As an advanced thermionics technology program, the charter and philosophy of the ATI program is to provide the needed advanced converter concepts in support of national thermionic space power programs.
The advanced thermionics initiative...program update
10th SymposiumùSpace Nuclear Power and Propulsion ; 1993 ; Albuquerque, NM, USA
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 271 , 3 ; 1219-1224
1993-01-20
6 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
The Advanced Thermionics Initiative Program
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