SHANGHAI - China is considering building a nuclear plant on the Moon to power the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) that it is planning with Russia, a presentation by a senior official showed on Wednesday.
Do we have reactors that would work properly (or, my bigger worry, whose safety systems will work properly) in such a low-grav environment? I assume they don’t mean the type that use heat from decay like old probes
Every safety system I can think of with nuclear power would work in low gravity environments as you don’t want to risk pieces of equipment getting stuck or going only 9.8 m/s so pressurized fluid, springs, and magnets are used. The concern I see is how you shed waste heat without an atmosphere
Do we have reactors that would work properly (or, my bigger worry, whose safety systems will work properly) in such a low-grav environment? I assume they don’t mean the type that use heat from decay like old probes
Every safety system I can think of with nuclear power would work in low gravity environments as you don’t want to risk pieces of equipment getting stuck or going only 9.8 m/s so pressurized fluid, springs, and magnets are used. The concern I see is how you shed waste heat without an atmosphere