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The potential for nuclear propulsion as a substitute for chemical propulsion for near term space exploration is examined. Chemical rockets face limitations on the generated thrust per unit mass of fuel. Increasing the specific impulse Is by using nuclear propulsion significantly reduces the percentage of total mass that must be allocated for the propellant, thereby increasing the payload. For long...
An analytical model is developed for estimating the heat fluxes in the lower and upper parts of the atmosphere that would result from possible increases in the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations and the ensuing temperature changes. For a doubling of the CO2 concentration by volume, the net heat flux to the troposphere is estimated to increase by 22 percent, and for a quadrupling of the concentration,...
Logarithmic risk and safety incidence indices for application in the risk assessment for a large population that is subjected to some forms of common hazards such as disease or natural disasters, are introduced. For a limited size population, more appropriate likelihood indices are derived for the comparison of hazardous activities that are peculiar to a small population that is engaged in a hazardous...
The thorium fuel cycle fissile and fusile breeding in a molten salt and a solid fuel blanket for a system consisting of fusion fuel factories coupled to fission satellites burners, is considered. The use of the thorium cycle in a fusion fission hybrid could bypass the stage of fourth generation fission breeder reactors in that the energy multiplication in the fission island allows the satisfaction...
The use of single purpose water production and dual purpose electricity and water production plants is discussed. An expression for the combined water and electrical production is derived. The total cycle efficiency appears as a sum of the electrical production efficiency and the water production efficiency weighted by the ratio of the absolute heat addition temperature to the water cycle to the absolute...
The reliability problems associated with transmission or gearbox equipped wind turbines and the existing solutions of using direct drive gearless turbines and torque-splitting, are reviewed. As alternative solutions we propose the Geared Turbofan Engine (GTF) technology, and magnetically-levitated bearings from the aerospace industry, and the consideration of Continuously Variable Transmissions (CVTs)...
The coupling of wind power production as an intermittent supply to nuclear power generation as a base load supply is discussed. Wind turbines on a standby operational mode are net importers of power for their control and yaw mechanisms. They need a supply of about 5 kW of power from an existing grid. They also require the vicinity of a power grid with excess capacity to export their generated power...
The world has substantial unconventional energy resources in phosphate rock deposits and sea water which contain vast amounts of dilute uranium. The South Mediterranean region, as a remnant of the ancient Tethys Sea, is endowed with large supplies of uranium fuel that is embedded in the phosphate rock being processed into fertilizer. Establishing a phosphate fertilizer industry that uses the appropriate...
Protons and neutrons are emitted in many fusion processes of light nuclei. In a fusion reactor, a proton and a neutron thus generated may again fuse with each other. Or they can in turn fuse with or be captured by an un-reacted nuclear fuel, for example deuterium. The average center-of-mass energy for such reaction is around 10keV in a typical fusion reactor. At this low energy, the reacting nucleons...
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