PTA OIC2
On the other hand, there are healthy indications that the capability of
the aircraft reactor team at ORNL 1s improving.
It was especially heartening
to learn that a picked group of experienced engineers from the K-25 plant has
no bee me
recently joined the project.
The infusion of this group may well step up the
pace, contribute practical resourcefulness and decision, and hasten the
effective blending of ORNL and P&W efforts.
In our judgement this program is in a critical state where every effort
should be made to determine quickly whether the Fluid Fuel approach is a
reasonable gamble to pay off in an operable propulsion system for aircraft
within the next eight years.
Oak Ridge, aided by P&W, should be the most
competent group to establish the foundation for this appraisal.
We suggest
that a thorough review, directed tewards a decision to continue or to modify
the approach, be held in about six months.
By this time, the augmented staff
at ORNL should be familiar with the critical problems and the prospects of
sey
tw ew at
to ae eredoeSe
“solvingthemandthe P&W people should be well integrated into the project.
Furthermore, the call for such an appraisal in the near future would itself
hasten the unification of various elements towards an agreed objective.
Heterogeneous Sodium-Cooled Reactor
Nuclear Development Associates has made a paper study of a sodium-cooled
aircraft reactor using fuel pins of the SIR type, in a 43-inch beryllium
right cylinder and with a central beryllium island.
Their design uses very
high velocities for the sodium coolant and assumes 5% burn-up on a 250-hour
oycle.
A heterogeneous reactor looks reasonable as an embodiment of the liquid
sodium cycle in an aircraft reactor and it may be desirable to initiate active
development in the near future.
ae