The main focus of this project is to produce a working schematic for a Generation IV Supercritical Water Reactor that is a competitive alternative to current methods of nuclear power production.Supercritical water is chosen as the coolant as its properties allow for the reactor to reach higher efficiencies that are out of a typical PWR’s range. Supercritical water means that the operating conditions for this reactor will be that of, or greater than pressures of 22.06MPa and temperatures of 327C.

The Extra-Planetary Space Reactor group has created a comprehensive design for an electric power production system on Mars, based around a nuclear reactor. This reactor system will produce 120 kW of electric power, enough to sustain a 24-person Mars colony. The reactor itself will be a supercritical carbon dioxide-cooled fast reactor, utilizing 20% enriched uranium nitride fuel in a beryllium oxide matrix. A 19-by-19 square matrix of square fuel elements, 2 cm on each side, will have holes drilled through each fuel element for coolant flow.

The goals for this project included: designing a core with a minimum lifetime/refueling cycle of sixty years, designing a core with a power rating of 1000 MWt, and decreasing the exposure to workers in the power plant. By offer a lifetime of at least 60 years, the design will be competitive with the present fleet of commercial reactors. The low power rating would allow for there to be flexibility in the placement of the reactor into the electric grid.

This device consists of four sub-systems. The mechanical system includes radiation shielding, a motorized industrial turntable, and a loading mechanism. The detector system reads the incoming radiation from the sample and provides input data to the translation system. The translation system receives raw data from the detectors, uses the data to determine characteristics of the waste, and sends the resulting information to the logic system.

The design of the bore needed to contain a diameter of at least 70.1 inches in order to fit the MPC as well as a depth of 50 meters to allow for the storage of 10 MPC in each bore. The diameter and depth of the drilling is dependent on already existing technologies because it would not be cost effective to develop new technology for this project. In our borehole storage design, canisters will be stacked on top of one another. The combined loading due to stacking canisters results in substantial axial stresses.

The team has created a system to accurately adjust the height of a suspended LND 30573 fission detector within an empty fuel pin along the active length of the reactor fuel pins.This new method will collect data in real time at steady-state power and directly reflect the steady state neutron flux. The system consists of a gear and chain mechanism with an attached guidewire to raise the detector through the length of the empty fuel pin. The gear and chain are driven by a stepper motor hooked up to an arduino.

Temperature and pressure sensors are vital pieces of monitoring equipment in a nuclear reactor, especially during accident conditions where temperatures and pressures can reach 1400 degrees Celsius and 10,000 PSI respectively. Unfortunately, conventional sensors cannot operate under the high temperatures, pressures and radiation conditions that occur during an accident.