Researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory say they may be close to perfecting a method to bring nuclear power to space ships. The team recently concluded experiments in which they used heat pipe technology to power a small reactor and a Stirling engine, both of which could easily ride along in space.
The heat pipe, which was invented at Los Alamos in 1963, is small fluid-filled tube capable of effectively transferring heat produced by a nuclear reactor. The pipe, coupled with a Stirling engine, make it possible to transfer nuclear heat into electrical energy in a unit small enough for space travel.
"The nuclear characteristics and thermal power level of the experiment are remarkably similar to our space reactor flight concept," said Los Alamos engineer David Poston. "The biggest difference between DUFF and a possible flight system is that the Stirling input temperature would need to be hotter to attain the required efficiency and power output needed for space missions."
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