1. Support INL staff in experimental work on fabricating refractory nuclear fuels. Fellows electing to work on the fuels fabrication effort will assist INL staff in producing tungsten cermet samples of varying constituency. The samples will be assessed for characteristic properties. The period of work is defined by the availability of the applicants.
2. Operate as part of a team for CSNR to evaluate one or more concepts. Potential concepts include but are not limited to:


1. Advanced Heat Exchanger Concepts – NASA is pursuing technology development of Fission Surface Power (FSP) systems for the lunar and Mars surface. A potential FSP concept uses a pumped liquid metal reactor cooling loop coupled to either Stirling or Brayton power conversion. System performance is very sensitive to this heat transfer interface. The participants will develop heat exchanger concepts that are efficient, lightweight, reliable, compatible with the working fluids, and feasible to build.
   
   
2. Reactor Mobility study -- Investigate potential scenarios to allow mobility of an advanced reactor on the lunar surface. Current plans are to implant the reactor and bury it in regolith. This precludes multiple lunar bases. The Summer 2008 Fellows designed a mobile system using the FSP. The 2009 participants will investigate a similar design for a gas-cooled, high-temperature, cermet core reactor. Issues such as shielding requirements, excavation options, and modes of transport to determine if the reactor can be moved to different sites will be examined. The benefits of a smaller, higher performance system to power a mobile lunar base will be assessed and compared to the 2008 results.
   


3. Shield options –Reducing mass and complexity are important aspects of space system design. The use of water as a radiation shield has the potential to reduce the mass and complexity of fission surface power (FSP) systems. Landed mass can be further reduced if water for the shield can be obtained in-situ. Participants will investigate water shield design from both a radiation attenuation and thermal management standpoint. Potential shield canister materials that have adequate long-term compatibility with water in a moderate radiation environment will be identified. Detailed radiation transport and thermal management calculations will be performed. Variable and fixed-orientation shields will be investigated. Methods for effectively using potential in-situ sources of water will be devised.
   
   
4. Nuclear Thermal Rocket mission assessment – The participants will design the NTR for various thrust, specific impulse, and lifetime modes. Innovative NTR designs will also be investigated. Evaluate the potential performance of a NTR for missions such as:
   1. humans to Mars
   2. orbit maneuvering of satellites in Low Earth Orbit, and
   3. interception of a massive low-period comet inbound to Earth.

During the summer, the Fellows will be asked to make short presentations of the results of their research and a final oral and written presentation to the laboratory management.