Nichrome-5,
The ribbon is cut to suitable lengths, which are then made into
"bracelets" of varying diameters.
These are then fitted into a tube so that
they fill the tube with a series of spaced circular elements presenting their
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edges to the air flow.
30 inches.
The length of tube which contains active elements is
The tubes are spaced in a 45" cylindrical reactor shell of aluminum
or zirconium and the volume outside the tubes is filled with light water (or
possibly an organic liquid) as a moderator.
The water, which will run at 300°F,
is expected to pick up about 10% of the total reactor heat and in the "flying
model" will be cooled in a radiator so installed that it essentially "flies
itself", | It is expected that the pressure drop through the reactor and
associated air ducts will be 20-30% of the pressure at the compressor outlet.
It was noted that ribbon elements have superseded wire elements as the
preferred type.
This is due to hydrodynamic difficulties in cooling the wires
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in thééonfigurations which have been tried to date.
It is expected that the
design will allow an average air temperature of 1700°F without exceeding
1950°F anywhere in the fuel elements.
Tests for structural integrity of the reactor design with heated air
blown through the tubes are in progress.
G.E. does not yet have a fuel element and a design which assures that the
performance as described can be realized.
However, their progress is quite
encouraging, the effort seems to be well integrated towards a practical power
plant, and we feel that strong support is warranted.
In our judgement, the
program might profitably use more personnel and money for additional studies
of materials and components.
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