ULTRA SAFE NUCLEAR CORPORATION - TECHNOLOGIES — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: Z10

Description

USNC-Tech proposes the design of a scalable ultrahigh-temperature material property testing and performance evaluation facility specialized for space nuclear reactor core and fuel components.nbsp; This testing facility will be capable of material evaluation under vacuum, hydrogen, nitrogen, and argon atmospheres at temperatures up to 2700 deg;C.nbsp; Both contact and non-contact measurement methods for testing data collection are included as part of the design of this system, and are within the scope of this proposal. The combination of ultrahigh-temperature testing, hydrogen atmospheric conditions, and contact/non-contact data collection is a very challenging set of requirements to simultaneously achieve. Two existing facilities can perform hot hydrogen testing (CFEET and NTREES) but neither has the capability to perform in-situ material characterization. The proposed solution will be the only known system that simultaneously combines ultrahigh-temperature testing, hydrogen atmosphere, and material property data collection at temperature.nbsp;