Evaluations of uranium-nitride fueled converters.
Evaluation of two uranium-nitride (UN) fueled converters was initiated at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to investigate the effect of fuel on the converter performance while being operated out-of-core. The initial tests were performed with the dynamic data acquisition system that was developed at the Laboratory. Parametric tests of these converters were to obtain: (1) static volt-ampere curves, (2) dynamic volt-ampere curves, and (3) the electrode work functions. The power outputs were 9.3 W/sq cm for the rhenium converter and 3.8 W/sq cm for the tungsten converter at 0.6 V when the emitter surface temperature was 2000 K, according to the static volt-ampere curves.
Shimada, K.↗