Fission fragment reactor

Similar to how the fission-fragment rocket produces thrust, a fission fragment reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates electricity by decelerating an ion beam of fission byproducts instead of using nuclear reactions to generate heat. By doing so, it bypasses the Carnot cycle and can achieve efficiencies of up to 90% instead of 40-45% attainable by efficient turbine-driven thermal reactors.

Fission fragment reactor designs generally have several common components. The reactor chamber contains a high surface area fuel in order to both facilitate the direct emission of fission fragments and to assist in cooling the fuel. Generally, if fuels subject to criticality are to be used instead of those which are to naturally decay (as in a nuclear battery), a moderator is typically involved as well. A magnetic mirror induced by an axial magnetic field typically collates the fragments into a beam which can then be decelerated to generate power. The rate at which the particles decelerate is dependent on their energy; as a consequence, the deceleration process also can help provide isotopic separation as an automatic reprocessing stage.

An earlier design by scientists at Idaho National Engineering Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory involved the concept of coating fine carbon wires with fissionable fuel. While this had a high surface area, it proved not enough to radiate the heat absorbed during the reactions, so their design was modified to rotate long wires through the core, giving them time to cool.

A later design by Rodney A. Clark and Robert B. Sheldon involves the use of a dusty plasma of electrostatically suspended fuel nanoparticles in the core. This increases the surface area enough to allow for effective radiative cooling. As the particles naturally ionize as fission occurs, electrostatic suspension is a simple process.