USA Put A Nuclear Reactor In Space And Abandoned It - How Did It Work?

In the early days of the US Space program there was a parallel nuclear power program to develop the nuclear power technologies needed for spaceflight. The Space Nuclear Auxiliary Power (SNAP) program worked on both isotope decay generators and fully operational fission reactors. And while several spacecraft have been launched to other planets using radio isotope generators, the US only launched one fully operational test reactor - SNAP 10A which operated according to predictions from ground tests. Until the host spacecraft failed 40 days into the mission.

While the concept was proven, no mission could be matched to the capabilities and no other test reactors have been flown by the USA.

(The Soviet Union on the other hand flew several)

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[blurr]

TIL that there is a nuclear reactor that isn't powerful enough to power my pc. I don't know what which one it says more about, but it says something.

[sirjohniv]

Excuse me, sir! Can you direct me to the naval base in Alameda? It's where they keep the nuclear wessels

[yyyy-uvpo]

I swear sometimes 1960s tech still looks futuristic.

[doncogswell]

My father worked for Atomics International and worked on the SNAP 10A as a design engineer. He said it was an engineering marvel.

[TheStormpilgrim]

"So, what do you want to launch on this mission?"
"A nuclear reactor with 93% enriched uranium."
"Huh. That's pretty rich. How do you plan to cool that?"
"Highly reactive alkali metals."
"Hmm. Interesting choice. And your going to get it up there how?"
"With a crap-ton of highly corrosive, hypergolic rocket fuel, of course!"
"Solid choice. Hey...is that your car?"
"Yeah! Just bought it. It's a Corvair!"
"ARE YOU MAD?! THAT THING'S A DEATHTRAP!!!"

[willamcombs]

My Dad worked at Aerojet General in Azusa, Ca. in the late 50's through the 60's. He worked on the Snap 8 project and I remember him talking about it using liquid NAK and highly pure hydrogen peroxide. I remember him talking about the danger using some of the chemicals used in the construction. I know He also worked on NERVA and the Mark 14 torpedo while at Aerojet General. Seeing your video brought back some fond memories of my late Father. Thank You.

[Neverwinterx]

7:35 Plasma wind tunnels? That brought me to interesting web pages.

[LordDustinDeWynd]

6:36 Yep, and lighthouses used mercury to provide frictionless "bearings" for the lenses, back when.

[Kelnx]

Great job on the explanations here. As a nuclear guy, I'm always surprised at how many science content creators get just basic reactor stuff wrong. Yes, absolutely, nuclear geometry is VERY important in reactor design. Not only to achieve criticality, but also for safety and control. I find it interesting that they had hafnium in the fuel cladding. Hafnium is a big (BIG) neutron absorber and is often used in control rods to reduce neutron flux and "slow a reactor's roll" so to speak. Or shut it down by inserting all or a certain group of control rods into a core (aka SCRAM).

Normally hafnium and zirconium are found together in nature, and to use zirconium in fuel cladding (Zircalloy, the most common type) the hafnium has to be processed out so it doesn't inhibit fission. Maybe they allowed some small amount of hafnium to act as a neutron poison? I'm not sure. It seems like with such a small mass of U-235, they wouldn't really want a poison. Then again, maybe just removing the reflectors wouldn't be enough to quickly shutdown this little core without a preexisting poison in the fuel cladding. I'd like to know more about this. All I remember from all of the materials stuff I had to study in school is that hafnium = bad in fuel cladding.

[davyaldy]

Scott I recently flew from Perth to Sydney, stayed a week and came back yesterday. On a couple of occasions I saw a group of pilots, all men, talking and as I walked past them I said, "Fly safe gentlemen." That is your influence on me.

[rnedisc]

When you say "the (1960s) scientists weren't even done yet" I was honestly expeting you to tell us they were planning on using liquid fluoride as a coolent or some shit like that, lol.

[npexception]

please don't use those weird AI upscalers. The footage looks super weird, especially with people in it. I think original footage should be preferred even if the quality isn't that great. I wouldn't be surprised if the fake details that are sometimes inserted by upscalers would trigger some conspiracy theorists...

[synrax]

I gotta say the AI upscaling on this archival footage looks *real* bad.

[kylebeatty]

"plasma wind tunnel" just casually thrown out there

[chadportenga]

13:00 Love the hand drawn "animations" they used to use.

[unvergebeneid]

1:54 I can relate. What I find critical about myself is also less the mass and more the geometry!

[senorelroboto]

Hastelloy is one of the nickel based superalloys like inconel

[nokbeen]

This isnt AI upscale, this is evidently AI downscale. My god, At First I thought I had done acid.

[mvg]

What is going on with the faces and fingers in the clips after 2:00? Is there AI coloring going on here? It looks very odd.

[Mrcometo]

1:30 Ah, the good old times, when you worked with beryllium with no face mask and putting the fuel rods using simple gloves...