3 ms·
Speaking of performance per dollar, what does the nuclear fuel for an NTR cost?
by zardo 4y ago
Speaking of performance per dollar, what does the nuclear fuel for an NTR cost?
- credit_guy 4y agoThe NERVA engine [1], [2] used 60kg of 92.5% enriched Uranium. The online nuclear fuel cost calculator [3] shows that at current Uranium market prices, the cost for 1kg of such highly enriched Uraniums is about $50k, so the whole engine core would come at about $3 MM. This engine had a weight of about 2.5 metric tons, a thrust of 75 kN and a specific impulse of 860s. For comparison, the weight of a SpaceX Raptor engine is about 1.5 tons, it has a thrust of 1.8 MN (24 times higher than Nerva) and a specific impulse of 360 s (2.4 times lower than Nerva's). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA [2] http://www.astronautix.com/n/nervaalphaengine.html http://www.astronautix.com/n/nervaalphaengine.html [3] https://www.uxc.com/p/tools/FuelCalculator.aspx https://www.uxc.com/p/tools/FuelCalculator.aspx