Hole wrote:No. Listen to what President Putin said. The important thing is that russian scientists developed a nucelar powered engine to fit into normal cruise missiles, he even mentioned Tomahawk for comparison.
he said not exactly this. Ot was like:
One of them is the creation of a small-sized superpower nuclear power plant, which is housed in a cruise missile like our latest air-launched X-101 missile or the American Tomahawk, but at the same time it provides dozens of times - a large range of flight, which is practically unlimited ", Подробнее на ТАСС:
http://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/4998645
like - nothing about size, like doesnt necessarily mean exact size to me
BTW check this out,dont go to English version, this is much more interesting. Looks like
singular transform was saying similar stuff
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ядерная_энергодвигательная_установка_мегаваттного_класса
Description
The NEDU consists of three main devices [75] [76] [77] [40] : a reactor facility with a working body and auxiliary devices (such as a heat exchanger-recuperator and a turbo-generator-compressor), an electric propulsion system, a radiator-radiator. The NEDU is sometimes confused with a nuclear rocket engine , however, the nuclear reactor in the NEDU is used only for generating electricity, which in turn is used to start and power the electric propulsion system (EDR), and also provides power to the on-board systems of the spacecraft [78] [79 ] ] .
The working medium circulating in the reactor is heated to a temperature of 1500 K and rotates the turbine . The generator generates electricity for electric propulsion , which has a much larger specific impulse than traditional jet engines (in particular, the plasma engine has a specific thrust of 20 times higher compared to chemical engines) [80] [39] [81] . Due to the fact that there is no need to heat the working medium to 3000 degrees, there is no need to conduct complex full-scale tests at the Semipalatinsk test site , as was the case with nuclear engines emitting a radioactive jet [39] .
The plant's fuel is uranium dioxide or carbonitride , but since the design must be very compact, uranium has a higher enrichment in the isotope 235 than in fuel elements at conventional nuclear power plants, possibly above 20%. This fuel will have to work at very high temperatures (in ordinary nuclear fuel energy temperatures are a thousand degrees lower). Therefore, it was necessary to select materials that can contain negative factors associated with high temperatures, and at the same time allow the fuel to fulfill its main function - to heat the gas coolant, through which electricity will be produced.
And their shell is a single-crystal alloy of refractory metals based on molybdenum (developed by NPO Luch in Podolsk). [42]
Feature of the project 2009-2018. consists in the use of a special coolant -the helium-xenon mixture [42] [82] [78] [83] . Cooling is produced by radiation [42] . The heated surface in the vacuum cools, emitting electromagnetic waves in a wide range, including visible light [42] .
Radiation safety is provided by shadow protection, so the reactor is closed only on one side - with the one where the equipment and the payload are located [42] . Radiation can freely propagate outside the protected area into outer space, which allows reducing the weight of the protective structure [42] [39] .
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The main executor of the NEDU is the Keldysh Research Center [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] . The main executor of the reactor facility is " NIKIET " [17] [18] [19] , led by general designer Yuri Dragunov [20] .
Design feature is the use of a special heating medium - helium - Xenon mixture of high temperature gas-cooled fast breeder reactor [21] , uranium higher concentration and temperature in the reactor up to 1500 K, the working bodies and protection system of the reactor plant are made of tubes made of molybdenum alloy TCM-7 [22] [23] [24] The unique structural material of the shell is capable of operating the reactor for more than 100,000 hours [25] [26] [27] [28]; During this time, an ordinary spacecraft can reach the boundary of the solar system. [25] [26] [27] [29] [30] [31] , two RTE reactors for ground tests and RUC for flight tests
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International cooperation
American companies engaged in space technology, cooperating with NASA , for many years and could not create a nuclear reactor that works stably in space, although they tried three times [34] . In this connection, in 1988 the United States conducted a ban on the use of nuclear power plants in space through the UN [34] and the work was canceled in 1989. [38] . However, the situation changed when Russian specialists continued the work of Soviet colleagues, US representatives showed interest in the development of the project and participation in it [39] .
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and here a cherry on top:
In 2016, the Design Bureau of the Arsenal named MV Frunze proposed the use of the YEDU on satellites of electronic warfare [201] .
Last edited by GunshipDemocracy on Thu Aug 30, 2018 2:34 am; edited 1 time in total