MULE -- A Co-Generation Fission Power Plant Concept to Support Lunar In-Situ Resource Utilisation

Abstract

For a sustained human presence on the Moon, robust in-situ resource utilisation supply chains to provide consumables and propellant are necessary. A promising process is molten salt electrolysis, which typically requires temperatures in excess of 900°C. Fission reactors do not depend on solar irradiance and are thus well suited for power generation on the Moon, especially during the 14-day lunar night. As of now, fission reactors have only been considered for electric power generation, but the reactor coolant could also be used directly to heat those processes to their required temperatures. In this work, a concept for a co-generation fission power plant on the Moon that can directly heat a MSE plant to the required temperatures and provide a surplus of electrical energy for the lunar base is presented. The neutron transport code Serpent 2 is used to model a ceramic core, gas-cooled very-high-temperature microreactor design and estimate its lifetime with a burnup simulation in hot conditions with an integrated step-wise criticality search. Calculations show a neutronically feasible operation time of at least 10 years at 100kW thermal power. The obtained power distributions lay a basis for further thermal-hydraulic studies on the technical feasibility of the reactor design and the power plant.