Re: Thorium Rocket Questions


<foulbr3@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1157935147.075754.94870@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi, I am "designing" a thorium nuclear rocket and I have a few
questions.

First of all, does Thorium use a neturon moderator? The question is,
assuming the external neutrons are slowed down, do we need to moderate
neutrons to make the Uranium 233 fission?

Secondly, WHY is Uranium 233 a fissionable substance when Uranium 234
is so stable? I don't understand why Uranium 233 will fission.


Because that's the way the universe is :-) Seriously, nobody knows the answer to that question, just like we don't understand why some isotopes have different half-lives than others, or are stable.


For my design, I currently have a quartz lightbulb with 100% Thorium
metal inside and an external neutron source (proton particle
accelerator with lead spallation target, or improved fransworth fusor
running on deuterium). Beryllium oxide surrounds the thing to
cyllendrically keep neutrons in (they can still escape out the ends).

Do I need a neutron moderator to complete the picture?


To answer that question, does U-233 fission from thermal or fast neutrons? Are the neutrons born from fission thermal or fast? How do you get thermal neutrons from fast ones to sustain the reaction?

Thirdly, my question is, what happens when we let the Thorium melt and
it begins to boil into a gas?

Why do you want to let it get that hot? What are you using the heat from fission for?

Can quartz hold thorium at that high
pressure? What exactly is the logic of a gas-core nuclear reactor? How
can you confine the gas at the ultrahigh pressure we need?

"Gas cooled" reactors are not unheard of. The 'gas' is not gaseous fuel, but rather some lightweight gas such as He. It is used to convey the heat from the fuel (which is still a solid) to some other place where it is used, or the gas is used as the working fluid in a heat engine.

The few designs I've seen for 'nuclear propulsion' of rockets use a propellant gas. The reactor is just used to heat the gas to very high temperatures so it leaves the rocket nozzle with a high velocity. But the nuclear fuel remains solid phase.

daestrom

.

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