Nuclear lightbulb

A nuclear lightbulb is a hypothetical type of spacecraft engine using a

reaction mass in a rocket or to generate electricity using a heat engine or photovoltaics

. This type of reactor shows great promise in both of these roles.

Rocket engine

As a rocket engine it, like all nuclear rocket designs, can greatly exceed the exhaust speed and specific impulse of a chemical rocket. However, it also does not involve the release of any radioactive material from the rocket, unlike open cycle designs which would cause nuclear fallout if used in a planetary atmosphere (e.g. Project Orion). The theoretical specific impulse (I_sp) range from 1500 to 3000 seconds.

Electrical power generation

As a method to generate electricity, nuclear lightbulbs are extremely efficient because higher-temperature heat contains more Gibbs free energy than the low-temperature heat produced in current fossil-fuel plants and water-cooled nuclear reactors.

References

Clark, John S.; McDaniel, Patrick; Howe, Steven; Helms, Ira; Stanley, Marland (April 1993), Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Technology: Results of an Interagency Panel in 1991 (PDF), NASA Technical Memorandum, NASA, pp. 38–9
Latham, Thomas; Joyner II, Claude (September 1991). "Summary of nuclear light bulb development status". Conference on Advanced SEI Technologies. AIAA/NASA/OAI Conference on Advanced SEI Technologies. Cleveland, Ohio: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
doi:10.2514/6.1991-3512
. AIAA 91-3512.

Latham, Thomas (October 1969). "Criticality studies of a nuclear light bulb engine". Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets. 6 (10). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA): 1148–1154.
doi:10.2514/3.29778
.

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