Design of Cesium Reservoir Critical Component Experiment for S‐PRIME

The purpose of this experiment is to confirm the operating temperatures and pressures of the cesium graphite integral reservoir design for the Space Power Reactor In‐Core Multicell Evolutionary (S‐PRIME) thermionic reactor. The test will verify the reservoir performance under both steady state and transient situations. The special cylindrical TFE (Thermionic Fuel Element) cell used for this test has a prototypic reservoir design and electrical heating for the emitter. It is similar to cylindrical converters designed in the past such as CC‐1X (General Atomics 1988) built under the TFE verification program, except for the reservoir details. The S‐PRIME TFE has six cells and one graphite reservoir. The reservoir is integral to one of the end cells and is thermally coupled to both of the emitters via the emitter sleeve and the collector via a section of a sheath insulator.