[ RadSafe ] Radioactive contamination unearthed at former rocket test site near Los Angeles - U.S. News

[John Ahlquist]

Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ]  Radioactive contamination unearthed at former rocket 
test site near Los Angeles -  U.S. News
 
I started my career at LANL working on the Rover Program [Pluto was the ramjet 
program] which was intended to use a nuclear reactor to power a second stage 
rocket for deep space exploration.   My first test was in 1965 on Phoebus 1A 
which was a 1100 MWt reactor that ran at full power for 12 minutes. The later 
Phoebus 2A was designed for 5000 MWt but due to problems ran only at 4000 MWt.  
The power level was cycled several times during a one hour run.  As Jerry says, 
the thrust was provided by liquid hydrogen that, in one pass through the about 4 
ft long core, was heated to over 4000 degrees R.  The power was provided by 
coated HEU beads in graphite fuel rods.  Each rod had 19 coolant channels.  You 
can imagine the materials and thermal problems from something that compact 
putting out that much energy.  The mission for such a reactor was never clearly 
defined and the program died in the early 1970s.  I remember on one of the test 
reactors, when the poison wires were removed, only two people were allowed to 
work next to the reactor because neutron reflection from more people might cause 
a criticality issue.
 
John Ahlquist
 
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ]  Radioactive contamination unearthed at former rocket 
test site near Los Angeles -  U.S. News
 
I believe you are referring to the "Pluto" program managed by  the Los 
Alamos Lab. Pluto was a rocket powered by liquid hydrogen by running   it 
through a nuclear reactor expanding its volume to provide the necessary thrust. 
It worked, but I assume because it involved nuclear energy,  it was politically 
unacceptable to the politicians in Washington. During the same period (the 
60's), Livermore Lab was working on a nuclear powered ramjet  engine. Following 
its first sucessful test, this project was also killed by  the federal 
government.
 
 Jerry  Cohen