Design and analysis of the SAFE-400 space fission reactor

Ambitious solar system exploration missions in the near future will require robust power sources in the range of 10 to 200 kWe. Fission systems are well suited to provide safe, reliable, and economic power within this range. The Heatpipe Power System (HPS) is one possible approach for producing near-term, low-cost, space fission power. The goal of the HPS project is to devise an attractive space fission system that can be developed quickly and affordably. The primary ways of doing this are by using existing technology and by designing the system for inexpensive testing. If the system can be designed to allow highly prototypic testing with electrical heating, then an exhaustive test program can be carried out quickly and inexpensively, and thorough testing of the actual flight unit can be performed—which is a major benefit to reliability. Over the past 4 years, three small HPS proof-of-concept technology demonstrations have been conducted, and each has been highly successful. The Safe Affordable Fission Engine (SAFE) is an HPS reactor designed for producing electricity in space. The SAFE-400 is a 400-kWt reactor that has been designed to couple with a 100-kWe Brayton power system. The SAFE-400 contains 127 identical molybdenum (Mo) modules. A Mo/sodium heatpipe is at the center of each module, surrounded by three Mo tubes that each contain a rhenium-clad uranium-nitride fuel pin. Fission energy is conducted from the fuel pins to the heatpipes, which then carry the heat to a heatpipe-to-gas heat exchanger. This paper describes the design and analysis of the current SAFE-400 reactor design.