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

TL;DR

This paper proposes a lunar co-generation fission reactor design that directly heats molten salt electrolysis for resource extraction and supplies electrical power, enabling sustained lunar operations during the night.

Contribution

It introduces a novel lunar microreactor concept that combines direct heat for resource processing with electrical power generation, extending reactor operation to at least 10 years.

Findings

Feasible operation time of 10+ years at 100kW thermal power

Neutron transport modeling supports reactor design viability

Provides a basis for further thermal-hydraulic analysis

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{\deg}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.