Nuclear Safety, Legal Aspects and Policy Recommendations
- Paper number
IAC-05-C3.5-C4.7.06
- Author
Mr. Roger X. Lenard, Sandia National Laboratories, United States
- Year
2005
- Abstract
Many missions have been carried out the very existence of which is owed to the availability of nuclear energy. There is little doubt that the information from Galileo, Cassini, Magellan, and the Pioneer probes has been of inestimable scientific and even social value. In the case of the Pioneers probes, a whole new regime of data has been opened by the so-called anomalous acceleration effect. These probes all enjoy the use of the nearly inexhaustible energy of nuclear fuel, most useful in areas deficient in solar flux, but utilitarian under other extremes as well. While solar energy has played a major role in the development of space, there are certain areas where the utility of solar power has achieved its limit, for example in the cases of Mars Exploration Rovers, (MERs). These devices are performing magnificently, but their utility is limited by the available power, sensitivity to dust, hence, the next generation of rovers, the Mars Science Laboratories, (MSLs) will employ small Radio isotope thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) as a source of electricity and thermal energy in order to significantly expand their utility envelope. Further, the Space Exploration Initiative announced by President Bush will require surface nuclear power, almost certainly nuclear electric propulsion (NEP), and potentially nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP), all nuclear reactor based. NASA’s Project Prometheus is completing Phase A reaching toward a NEP spacecraft capable of navigating and orbiting the icy moons of the Jovian system employing fission reactor power. In order for reactor power and propulsion to be used, it must be perceived by the public to be safe. This paper present some of the salient results of an IAA-sponsored cosmic study addressing the issue of space nuclear reactor power and propulsion systems and some poilicy recommendations for their safe use and enhancing their utility to space missions.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-C3.5-C4.7.06.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.