THE POSSIBILITY TO USE A NUCLEAR REACTOR AS SOURCE OF ENERGY FOR A JET ENGINE

It had investigated the possibility to use a nuclear reactor for airplanes propulsion. The 2 possible solutions for a nuclear jet engine are: the direct cycle (where the fluid pass through the reactor's core) and the indirect cycle (the fluid is passing through a heat exchanger). Taking in to account the radioprotection problems, the only realistic solution seems to be the indirect cycle, where the energy transfer should be performed by a heat exchanger that must work at very high speed of the fluid. The heat exchanger will replace the classical burning room. It had performed a more precise theoretical study for the nuclear jet engine regarding the performances of the nuclear reactor, of the heat exchanger and of the jet engine. It was taken in to account that in the moment when the burning room is replaced by a heat exchanger, a new model for gaso-dynamic process from the engine must be performed.