Nuclear Design 2020

This project is conceived to improve your knowledge

in fundamentals of nuclear reactor design,

as taught in the four chapters studied in class:

1) classification attempt

2) water-moderated reactors

3) graphite-moderated reactors

4) reactors with reduced moderation,

by working on recent and accessible research articles.


Additional information can be easily found on the web

(for instance on this site: https://www.nuclear-power.net).

For more details on this year's subject,

extra documents are given at the bottom of this page

(one per article) together with this common introduction.

KRUSTY (1 kWe) and JANUS (1 MWe)

small reactors for space electric propulsion

Nuclear Design, How To ?

Teacher : Alexis Nuttin


  • 4 subjects = 4 parts (defined below) of the two selected articles (pdf files at the bottom of this page)

  • Understanding and synthesis work in group

    • During our brainstorming sessions and outside

    • Questions about precise issues to ask by e-mail

  • Send documents by e-mail before October 29

    • Slides in pdf, w/o animation (4-6 max. per person)

    • Abstract of about 500 words (2 pages max.)

  • Pedagogic & synthetic presentation ("best way to learn is to teach")

    • 10-minute presentation per group (1/4h max.)

    • 10-minute Q&A session (from the other groups)


KRUSTY and JANUS, two small space reactors (November 2)


article 1 : D. Poston et al. (LANL), KRUSTY Reactor Design (Nucl. Tech. 206, 2020)

KRUSTY experiment described by his responsible D. Poston (from 04:00, until 25:00)


article 1, part a (until VIII.A, included) : Design issues and goals, Simulation tools, Reactor description

Alan, Grégoire, Ana

article 1, part b (from VIII.B) : Reactor components (heat pipes, reflector, ...), Design calculations

Carlos, Francesco, Mattia


article 2 : A. Peakman and R. Gregg (NNL), The challenges of gas-cooled reactor technology for space propulsion and the development of the JANUS space reactor concept (Prog. Nucl. Energy 125, 2020)