This paper investigates potential shielding options for surface power fission reactors. The majority of work is focused on a lunar shield that uses a combination of water in stainless‐steel cans and lunar regolith. The major advantage of a water‐based shield is that development, testing, and deployment should be relatively inexpensive. This shielding approach is used for three surface reactor concepts: (1) a moderated spectrum, NaK cooled, Hastalloy/UZrH reactor, (2) a fast‐spectrum, NaK‐cooled, SS/UO2 reactor, and (3) a fast‐spectrum, K‐heat‐pipe‐cooled, SS/UO2 reactor. For this study, each of these reactors is coupled to a 25‐kWt Stirling power system, designed for 5 year life. The shields are designed to limit the dose both to the Stirling alternators and potential astronauts on the surface. The general configuration used is to bury the reactor, but several other options exist as well. Dose calculations are presented as a function of distance from reactor, depth of buried hole, water boron concentration (if any), and regolith repacked density.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Water and Regolith Shielding for Surface Reactor Missions



    Conference:

    SPACE TECH.& APPLIC.INT.FORUM-STAIF 2006: 10th Conf Thermophys Applic Microgravity; 23rd Symp Space Nucl Pwr & Propulsion; 4th Conf Human/Robotic Tech & Nat'l Vision for Space Explor.; 4th Symp Space Coloniz.; 3rd Symp on New Frontiers & Future Concepts ; 2006 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA)


    Published in:

    AIP Conference Proceedings ; 813 , 1 ; 953-966


    Publication date :

    2006-01-20


    Size :

    14 pages





    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    Water and Regolith Shielding for Surface Reactor Missions

    Poston, D. I. / Ade, B. J. / Sadasivan, P. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2006


    Martian regolith as space radiation shielding

    Simonsen, L. C. / Nealy, J. E. / Townsend, L. W. et al. | NTRS | 1991


    Martian regolith as space radiation shielding

    SIMONSEN, L. C. / NEALY, J. E. / TOWNSEND, L. W. et al. | AIAA | 1991


    Surface Properties of Lunar Regolith Grains: Current Investigations and Questions for Furture Missions

    Roy Christoffersen / Catherine Dukes / Lindsay P Keller et al. | NTRS