The thing about the use of hydrogen as the radiation insulator
The pure hydrogen absorbs very good way the radioactive material, and there have been plans to cover the nuclear reactor by using liquid hydrogen. This system would be effective in the lightweight nuclear reactors, where in theory again, needed the two layers of material, and the hydrogen would put between those layers. The problem with liquid hydrogen is that the material itself is highly reactive.
And if the hydrogen would touch the air, it will explode. This kind of reactors would be useful in some interplanetary flights, but the problem is that testing that equipment on the Earth causes very big resistance. There have been plans to use hydrogen as the propellant for the nuclear-powered aircraft because it would not become radioactive.
In those cases, the aircraft would use nuclear motors, where the nuclear reactor is inside the motor, and the hydrogen would inject in the same chamber with the reactor, where it also cools that thing. The cooling system contains the ram-air inlet and hydrogen pump, but the thing is that kind of systems are causing the problems.
But this kind of systems has been tested in the Project Pluto along with NERVA program. The engineers planned to put the NERVA reactor in the bomber or giant cruise missile, and fly in the Soviet airspace. This thing would be the real-life version of the nuclear-powered missiles. But the thing is that this kind of technology has also be used in some test aircraft like Convair NB-36B and the Russian TU-95 LAL experimental nuclear bombers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_NB-36H
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95LAL
The pure hydrogen absorbs very good way the radioactive material, and there have been plans to cover the nuclear reactor by using liquid hydrogen. This system would be effective in the lightweight nuclear reactors, where in theory again, needed the two layers of material, and the hydrogen would put between those layers. The problem with liquid hydrogen is that the material itself is highly reactive.
And if the hydrogen would touch the air, it will explode. This kind of reactors would be useful in some interplanetary flights, but the problem is that testing that equipment on the Earth causes very big resistance. There have been plans to use hydrogen as the propellant for the nuclear-powered aircraft because it would not become radioactive.
In those cases, the aircraft would use nuclear motors, where the nuclear reactor is inside the motor, and the hydrogen would inject in the same chamber with the reactor, where it also cools that thing. The cooling system contains the ram-air inlet and hydrogen pump, but the thing is that kind of systems are causing the problems.
But this kind of systems has been tested in the Project Pluto along with NERVA program. The engineers planned to put the NERVA reactor in the bomber or giant cruise missile, and fly in the Soviet airspace. This thing would be the real-life version of the nuclear-powered missiles. But the thing is that this kind of technology has also be used in some test aircraft like Convair NB-36B and the Russian TU-95 LAL experimental nuclear bombers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_NB-36H
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95LAL
Comments
Post a Comment