Review of Rover fuel element protective coating development at Los AlamosThe Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL) entered the nuclear propulsion field in 1955 and began work on all aspects of a nuclear propulsion program with a target exhaust temperature of about 2750 K. A very extensive chemical vapor deposition coating technology for preventing catastrophic corrosion of reactor core components by the high temperature, high pressure hydrogen propellant gas was developed. Over the 17-year term of the program, more than 50,000 fuel elements were coated and evaluated. Advances in performance were achieved only through closely coupled interaction between the developing fuel element fabrication and protective coating technologies. The endurance of fuel elements in high temperature, high pressure hydrogen environment increased from several minutes at 2000 K exit gas temperature to 2 hours at 2440 K exit gas temperature in a reactor test and 10 hours at 2350 K exit gas temperature in a hot gas test. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the rationale for selection of coating materials used (NbC and ZrC), identify critical fuel element-coat interactions that had to be modified to increase system performance, and review the evolution of protective coating technology.
Document ID
19930029892
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Wallace, Terry C. (Los Alamos National Lab. NM, United States)
Date Acquired
August 15, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1991
Publication Information
Publication: In: Space nuclear power systems; Proceedings of the 8th Symposium, Albuquerque, NM, Jan. 6-10, 1991. Pt. 3 (A93-13751 03-20)